A Day in Kumo
by Ikasury
Summary: It was just another day in Kumo... one day is all it takes for something monumental to happen, in Kumo its no different. These are the stories of some of the days that defined the Village Hidden in the Clouds or just some of the people in it... Drabble-Pile/Companion Compilation to 'Who You Callin' Hyuuga' - Chapter 5 - How Ruri and Kuri became Masters...
1. A Day in Kumo

**A/N:** alright, first things first!

this is a 'companion' of sorts to 'Who You Callin' Hyuuga?', yes that massive thing that i'm still playing with and enjoy examining... **_IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THAT YOU WILL HAVE NO IDEA WHO SOME OF THESE CHARACTERS ARE OR WHY THEY ARE_**_** IMPORTANT**_ ... if that doesn't bother you, please proceed, if that does please read a few chapter of 'Who You Callin' Hyuuga?' :3

i've gotten a few requests/pokes suggesting i make a drabble pile of 'other things' that go on in that same universe, as i do tend to write apparently interesting characters and various asides whenever i get stuck on a certain part for WYCH, most of these 'asides' end up being either 'non-canon' for WYCH, possible to use for later, or just have no real 'place' in the narrative of WYCH as that thing is already pretty huge... yes, that's the lean version, without all the extra crazy :3

so, in short, i maaaaaaaaay be potentially using this as a drabble pile, we'll see, and i'll note if its 'canon' or not, as some aren't canon but just interesting character examinations... and we all know i love my characters, right! :D

anywho, i felt if i were EVER going to do something like this i would HAVE to start off with something that's insanely poignant to WYCH, canon, and strangely integral to WYCH but can stand on its own... this is the third full draft of this i've written and i feel is the 'best' of what i'm trying to convey with this event and these characters...

without further adieu, i give you the WYCH Universe - CANON version of how the Fourth Raikage became the Fourth Raikage...

ENJOY!

* * *

A Day in Kumo…

There was a rumble outside, dark clouds hanging in the sky…

Grey eyes opened, facing the floor to ceiling windows of her lone room in her quarters on the far side of the village. For six years this room had been the closest thing she had to a home, it was sparse, small and barren, much like herself. The young woman sat in a perfectly still kneeling position, silencing her mind as her heightened senses told her there was a shift in the world around her…

A swift sound and a large teen went to one knee, fist on the ground as his sandy red head faced the ground, red eyes never daring to glance up at the woman that was his new master.

All was silent stillness for the longest moment before the red-eyed teen spoke one word.

"Confirmed."

A growl was the only response, mixing with the rumbling thunder outside. When the boy dared to tilt his head up enough to confirm his suspicions he found the small, sparse, barren room empty aside from him.

The white assassin was on the hunt.

* * *

"Naota what are you doing?" a cheery voice glided over and to the ears of the young chuunin, their dark blue eyes spying the young female teen that was their partner. She smiled that wide and warming smile that always brought a smile to their face.

As much as they tried to resist Naota couldn't, not in their partner's presence, "Shiyori-chan, you're out here late?"

Shiyori, the beautiful brown haired girl just a bit older then the dark blue haired chuunin just kept up that smile, adjusting the sleeves on her evening kimono as she moved to lean on the railing beside them. Without thinking or notice the brunette rubbed up along the glasses wearing chuunin's arm, causing them to blush, as she leaned comfortably to look at them, "I could say the same of you Naota," again without concern for personal space she reached a tan hand out and poked her pale partner on the nose, "Its late enough, with a storm on the way and you're out here brooding… again~"

A blush passed over pale cheeks as they tried to hide it among long dark blue bangs, "Y-you know I like this weather…"

"Hmm…" the tan young woman was leaning her chin on her propped hand, "Suppose you do," her voice sounded annoyed and miffed, "It's so heady and humid, you probably like the feel of all this moisture in the air, huh?"

Naota gave a nervous chuckle, "What can I say… I'm a water type of person?"

That bell-like giggle spread through the air and Naota couldn't help but smile, watching as Shiyori laughed…

Then suddenly there was silence.

The young dark blue haired chuunin blinked open their eyes, snapping to their partner as they noticed _**that**_ look come over the tan brunette's face. Gone was the giggling warm effervescent smile; in its place was cold and merciless as those dark eyes seemed to peer through Naota.

-_No… she's not looking at me…_- without thinking the young chuunin turned around, tensing as their hands went straight for their blades as they came face to face with something they would never forget.

Before them was what appeared to be a woman, lilt and pale wearing only what appeared to be black and grey. Her hair was short and white with braids framing her sharp pale face and her eyes were a reflection of steel. She, too, was not facing Naota.

As the chuunin's hand gripped their blade something like a growl permeated the area and they were hard pressed to tell if it had anything to do with the dark rolling clouds or the woman invading their private moment…

A warm hand passed over Naota's hand, soothing to the touch, forcing them to let go of their weapon as Shiyori stepped before her partner, placing herself in the path of the white woman.

The two seemed to stare intensely for a moment, eyes set in that same look… and in an instant all Naota saw was the white woman gone, red spreading all over Shiyori's body as her body collapsed in slow motion.

There were no words… on instinct Naota dropped to their knees, reaching without thought to catch their partner as the young woman seemed to suddenly be bleeding from wounds… so _many_ wounds… there was no way to stop the bleeding, it was too quick, all her major arteries and veins were slit open and dark blood was quickly pooling around them…

"Shi… Shi…" Naota's body was shaking, dark blue eyes wide as they couldn't comprehend what just happened, what was happening in front of them…

A red hand reached up; with the last of her strength Shiyori touched Naota's cheek and smiled at them…

Then the light faded from her eyes and the arm fell without warning.

There was a sudden shift, the sound of a blade flicking, blood dropping and Naota's frazzled mind homed in on it. The white woman, the white _assassin_ was standing there, flicking her blade clean with her back facing the two.

For the longest moment Naota just stared, mind still unable to comprehend or understand what happened…

The woman stepped forward, and disappeared.

* * *

"Hehe, no… really?" a tan hand gripped the man's large bicep.

"Not even joking," he laughed as the woman shoved him in her disbelief, neither mentioning how she pressed her chest further around his arm as she nuzzled her way around his shoulder. He waved a hand nonchalant as he continued his ill-gotten tale, she laughed at his antics and the two of them stepped closer and closer on the open platform.

It was rare that Reki ever felt this happy, sure she loved her job, running whatever assistant she had ragged, and she loved her young children. Daiyo helped a lot with the kids, Jun and Mei seemed to like him, or at least Mei liked that she already had the man wrapped around her little finger and Jun was comfortable enough around the man to listen to him. The scruffy dark blonde would come over when he was free, give Mei all the piggy-back rides she wanted and always showed Jun a thing or two about using his kunai. He was a great step up from her last affair…

The black haired woman pushed the bad memories away by nuzzling further into the man's shoulder, forehead to that evening fabric he always wore. The sleeves were long and ridiculous but no matter what she said the man wouldn't let go of them, called them 'traditional' to his family, she called it silly. He was rambling on about some mission he had, his mark being a rich idiot that fell for some overly ridiculous plan that got him killed while looking like an accident. It was likely the desk clerk had heard it before but she didn't care… she just loved hearing his voice, being able to touch him like this and not have to worry about brats splitting them up or paperwork.

-_Just for a moment… let my eternity be like this…_- she breathed in his scent, mixed with the heady air outside, as she tried to memorize every facet she could feel. The way he stood, the way he felt, the way he breathed… kami strike her down she was such a sap of a romantic when she was in love with some idiot.

"So, the authorities came and-"

He stopped.

Black eyes opened, he wasn't stiff like the coming of battle, in fact she didn't feel anything, but suddenly… stillness.

Stillness was bad.

Without any prompting Reki leaned back, separating herself enough from Daiyo to look him over, glance up at his face and sense the entire area. She was a veteran ANBU for kami's sake, the amount of information her mind processed in the time others took to measure a second was unfathomable.

The dark tan blonde man was still, his head turned to look over their shoulders as this look came about his eyes she had only ever seen on one other person…

-_Satsuki…_- without thinking the older woman turned around and something in her heart broke. Standing before them was a woman with pale skin, white hair and steel grey eyes. It had been years since she'd seen the girl, now woman this close. After what happened with her children's father, Reki had wanted to find Satsuki and reconcile… but every time she caught a glimpse of the woman it was at a distance and usually her back, as if the young girl she'd known was purposely ignoring she existed. The black haired Jounin had given up, severing their tie as it seemed to be what the woman wanted… a part of her always feeling guilty at her own cowardice.

Now this…

Daiyo turned around smooth as silk, releasing himself from Reki without the woman even noticing how or when he'd done it, taking a step forward and taking a stance she'd never seen him make in battle. He wasn't tense, almost calm as it seemed he was only standing before the white haired woman. Neither said a word, only held that intense gaze…

"Don't…" the word left Reki's lips before her mind had the time to register why. She had seen Satsuki in battle; brought the girl with the other R&D test subjects in as shocktroops during the Uzu War as a vanguard for her command… she knew what that girl could do when _**that**_ look came over her face. –_Don't Dai… don't do it… don't you dare leave me!_-

A rumble from the coming thunder, both had blades in their hands…

An instant…

And the man was crumpling on the ground, blood quickly pooling around him.

Black eyes followed as the man fell to the ground, her expert eyes taking in the sudden wounds that formed on his body that began to seep blood.

They raised a fraction and caught those sharp steel colored ones.

For a moment the two women just stared. Something unreadable passed through the white woman's grey eyes while Reki's black ones scrunched in a manner that showed too much; hate, sorrow, love, fear, regret, joy, guilt, pain… all mixed into an empty cacophony as she stared at the woman the girl she knew had become.

"Sats-" and a futile reach was as far as she got before the woman was gone… again.

Reki fell to her knees, arms hung limply for a moment before her blank black eyes fell on the body in front of her, huddled in a mass surrounded in dark blood. Mechanically she reached out rolling him over; catching in a single glimpse the extent that woman had done to him. There were precision cuts in all his major arteries and veins; both jugular, carotid, the aorta just above the heart and vena cava just below and to the right, both arm pits, both femoral, two distinct stabs in his stomach where the hepatic vein and renal artery were along with the iliac around his hips… all the blood he had was literally pumped out of his body in seconds. There was no chance he could have survived.

Shaky hands reached out, pulled him by that stupid evening kimono into her lap as her arms numbly slid around his back and shoulders placing his head right above her heart as her own leaned on his…

And she cried.

"I deserve this… I deserve this…" the minute whisper and tears were all that could be heard on the platform.

* * *

In less than an hour all the external members of the clan were dead.

That left only the direct clan members.

The white haired assassin stepped through the gates off the sole bridge that lead to the lair of one of Kumo's greatest triumphs. The current Raikage had killed the leader of this branch of Assassins before his ascension, using them against his own father and mother to take the 'throne' of Kumo. His father had won the Raikage title by coup, so his son had done the same, just as every leader of the bandits before Kumo had all the way back to village's founding as a hideout. The current Raikage had been lucky; obtaining these elusive master killers, even more lucky when ten years ago more of them had shown up, offering up a child as payment for their refuge.

A child that was returning for the first time in that decade to what was once her clan.

Satsuki did not hate her clan, did not seek revenge for what they had done; sold her, thrown her away, making her a non-person to them, non-people. She told herself she felt nothing towards them, it was why they could function side-by-side normally.

But today was not a normal day.

They threatened the one thing that gave meaning to her life, the _**only**_ thing that mattered to her.

They would not harm her Lord… and she would make sure of that.

As the doors to the inner sanctum of the Assassin clan opened, revealing the remaining 'true' clan members with the head standing right before her, all of them with weapons drawn, the only thing any of them saw was a flash of those unfamiliar steel colored eyes.

… Then the bloodbath began.

* * *

Panting and in severe pain, the white haired assassin fell to her knees on the blood flooded floor. All around her were the bodies… so many bodies… each with the same wounds, all of them drained of blood that flowed freely from arteries and veins strategically cut open.

She had held the technique for too long but it had been necessary… had she stopped, even for an instant, and not one of them was completely dead they would have killed her.

It was ironic, she realized, that with this final act, this final end to her clan, she had fully realized and achieved what they had all only dreamed of.

In a single blow, without thought or consideration of the outcome, she had killed them all.

"Ahghh…" her body seized, trembling as pain shot through every nerve she had…

She could feel their hearts still beating with nothing left as they began to die one by one. Each death, each life snuffed out, she felt it… _all_ of it.

"C-curse me… all… you.. wan-AGHH!" she flipped over, the pain and spasms increasing as she had to clinch her jaw just to not bite off her own tongue. It took several long agonizing minutes for the feeling to subside, all the while she could feel their hearts futilely pump air… just a few more seconds and the muscle died, silencing them. A few more seconds to damn what she'd done.

"You were… you… haa… haa…" another wave of pain as her jaw clinched to the point she was almost positive her teeth cracked. What her words could not finish her mind did –_You were going to kill him, I would _**never**_ let that happen…_-

Why was she trying to justify herself… to corpses…

For the longest time those cloudy eyes stared at the ceiling, blood dripping from the higher levels she had slain others on as the pain wracked her body.

Why did she care what they thought, they were dead…

Why did she _**still**_ care what they thought, they were the ones that threw her away…

Somewhere in the back of her mind there had still been hope hadn't there? From when she was a child seeking the elders' approval… that childish desire to have the others see her like they saw the other 'Assassins'… to _**be**_ one of those Assassins…

Now they were dead… by her own hand.

She was a true Assassin… and none of them were there to see it.

"It… doesn't… matter…" her voice was so low and high pitched as tears ran freely down the sides of her face as her grey eyes continued to stare openly at the ceiling, her body tense with pain, "it… doesn't… matter…"

They were dead… her Lord was alive, that's all that mattered.

… If only she could hear those words over the sound of empty hearts.

There was another low rumble from the heavy hanging clouds.

Grey eyes snapped open as an enormous presence suddenly came within range of her senses. There was only one man with chakra that wild, massive, and capable of moving that fast outside the village right now: The Raikage.

-_Jin!_- her body snapped to action, rising to her feet, not caring about the lingering pain or the dried blood seeped into her clothes. She had to get to him before his Father, had to tell him it was safe… -_Jin, you can kill him now…_- she nearly stumbled on her way out, either from her worn body or a slip didn't matter as she caught herself on the door frame.

For a moment Satsuki paused, a sense of dread coming over her that had nothing to do with her Lord. It was that sense any killer got when they left a grave, that lingering feel of death right on their heels about to pounce and creep along with them… it was that feeling along the back of her neck that made her want to turn and face the corpses of the fallen… knowing she may break if she did so.

Shaking her head roughly the white haired assassin opened steely eyes, facing the heavy hanging clouds and building thunder. –_Jin needs me…_- her Lord needed her… that was all that mattered… all that would _**ever**_ matter.

Solidifying her decision, 'Kemui' Satsuki left the Assassins' tomb and never looked back.

* * *

A week ago word was sent to Kumo of a mounting Konoha invasion along their southern border. With an army of ten thousand shinobi the Konoha-nin sought to invade the Land of Lighting, forming a stronghold on one of their border towns and proceeding to invade in multiple strikes from there.

The Raikage had merely grunted his displeasure, asking how the hell Konoha managed to get _**TEN THOUSAND**_ shinobi strong in one army? "Either those pansy tree-huggers have those kinds of resources to waste or not a single one of these scrubs is worth my time…" the large Oni of a man's assistant had merely squeaked, running out of the way as he punched a hole in the wall and stared down, "Might as well find out…"and with that the Third Raikage, like many before him, jumped out into the open clouds of Kumo bent on seeking out this supposed en masse army of Konoha.

He made it to the outpost in two days, a _leisurely_ pace for a man of his speed, only to find his men, some couple hundred left, at the outpost grossly outnumbered by what seemed to be a _wave_ of conscripted shinobi. Most had that look of the 'pussy tree-huggers' but some looked to be from the minor nations in-between their countries and tossed a Konoha headband. Can't say the Raikage was all that surprised, Konoha liked taking a page from Iwa's book with shocktroops and overwhelming numbers from time to time… at least when it came to fighting Kumo.

"Hmp," the large Oni had shrugged, unimpressed. His men could handle an armada like this easy; the only thing holding them back was trying to hold the position and fatigue from fighting for days. The great Oni just spit on the ground, walking forward passed the stronghold, when his people tried to call him back he merely waved back at them, "Shut the hell up and get out of here," cracking his neck he looked down at the horde of ants in his way, "I'll handle this…"

The history books in every nation _**BUT**_ the Village Hidden in the Clouds states the large Oni of a man, the Third Raikage faced off against that onslaught of Konoha elite ninja for three days and died from his wounds and exhaustion.

Any _**Kumo**_ shinobi being told this would just stare at the storyteller like they're a moron and walk away. In Kumo the story is quite different. The Third Raikage did go to that stronghold and did fend off the Konoha invasion for three days straight, but neither did he 'die nobly from exhaustion' nor did he do so to 'save his people'. The man had been bored sitting around in his throne room so went trying to find a challenge. He hadn't killed ten thousand shinobi by himself yet, and the only reason he told his people to leave was so they weren't in his way. A Juggernaut could fight infinitely better not caring who they were smashing between their fingers… not that he would have paused at killing his own men, he just hated wasting the resources.

And for the record, from the man's own testimony they _**were NOT**_ 'Highly trained Konoha elite ninja', just a massive horde of genin and chuunin fodder-nin, like normal, that he'd expected from Konoha. They didn't _waste_ their good shinobi in these dumbass invasion schemes, and if they did, the bastards usually retreated long before he could get through all the chaff to get them… the pricks.

Now, three days later, when the sun rose over the low-lands the Third Raikage had simply breathed out an unhappy snort, crossing his arms and looking out upon his destruction…

… Utterly, completely fucking bored.

"Pansies…" with that muttered grunt the man had turned heel, breezing through his base, snagging a sandwich from one of his men and mumbled a guttural, "Clean this shit up," while making his way out the back… finishing his sandwich.

Whelp, that had been boring, got him to sweat decently but that was probably just from the hotter temperature down on the ground, it was a coin toss to the large Oni. So after this little sojourn the man made his _brisk_ way back to Kumo, recuperating his strength and wondering what was going to happen now to alleviate his unfathomable boredom.

Sometimes being the strongest man in the world sucked…

He didn't even bother to look up or slow his pace as he passed the great 'entrance' to Kumo, the huge slab commissioned by his grandfather when he decided this would be a 'Shinobi' village and no longer a bandit hideout. He remembered seeing it as a kid with his mother and shouting 'daddy!' up at the big angry Oni riding the thunder cloud bent on terrorizing the villages below. His own son had said something similar, the little punk…

That reminded him…

"Hmm?" something about this 'home coming' seemed oddly quiet. Where was that bastard Assassin, whatshisname that always liked to talk his fucking ear off with inane bullshit whenever he was within spitting distance? And weren't those fuckers supposed to keep his son in line? He knew the little jerk was coming back from his own sabotage mission, where the fuck was he?! The large Oni growled as he paused on a large central platform open to the sky, a certain feeling running along his skin… an old feeling, one he almost had forgotten…

A wide fanged grin spread on the old Oni's face as he recognized that feeling, it was the same as the one he had when he faced off against his father, taking the title 'Raikage' from the old bastard… making him proud as he ripped out the man's fucking heart.

The clouds hanging heavy around the village seemed to rumble their approval and the great Oni could hardly argue.

From the main bridge leading to the Raikage's Tower from the wide platform two figures approached, both large by any other village standard, but to the big Oni of a Raikage they were still small whelps to him. The first was his son, Gouzin Jinrai, named after his mother that died giving birth to him, those piercing small black eyes, that pitiful beard he was trying to grow, and the stupid jacket he had hanging off his shoulders. Really, the kid had no fashion sense, probably what happened when he didn't have a mom to guide him.

"hmph," behind his unruly son was his bastard, the boy a bit smaller but otherwise looking practically the same aside from the tattoo on his face. If it had been up to the Raikage he would have completely ignored the kid existed, but he made a fantastic Jinchuuriki, able to contain and control the damn Ushi-Oni like none before him, R&D still hadn't given him any reason why that was… oh well, he may never know after today.

The burly older man simply crossed his arms, staring down his sons like nothing unusual was happening, "S'what's this boy… a welcome home party?"

"Sumthin' like that old man," Jin gave that thuggish scowl, tilting his head in obvious threat, like he was a damn threat, Ha! A dark tan hand reached out as the younger Oni pointed at his father, "Hand over the hat, your reign's done!"

It was quiet for a good long moment.

"HAHAHAHAHA!" then the Raikage just stared laughing loudly to the heavens. His sons bristled and the large Oni turned his odd-colored eyes on them, a wicked grin showing off his fangs on his face, "You think so, huh?" he cracked his neck threatening, "And just why the hell would I _hand_ over anything?" the grin grew into a sneer, "You too much'a pussy to come and take it like a man?" the great Oni raised his hands, giving a 'come on' gesture to his sons.

Jin nearly snarled, gripping his fists tightly knowing his old man was trying to goad him into a brash attack. He spat the bad taste out of his mouth before staring at his father seriously again, "I ain't gonna ask again old man."

"feh," the old Oni just crossed his arms, looking upon his sons as if they were insignificant, "We're Kumo boy, we don't _**ask**_ anything…" that sinister grin spread showing those sharp canines as his odd colored eyes looked Jin right in his beady black ones, "We _**take**_ it."

Large fists gripped tighter, behind Jin Bee took a step back, feeling his older brother's anger rise along with his chakra. Defiantly the young Oni glared at the old one.

The old Oni laughed again, "The hell got up your ass thinkin' you can take my throne, huh?" that cocky evil smirk, "That bitch finally put out?" he made a rather derogatory gesture with his tongue that had Jin growling, "You feelin' all high cause she finally got on your dick?"

Jin saw red, moving to lunge at the old bastard-!

"Whoa Bro, chill!" Bee held his brother around both shoulders, needing more strength then he realized to hold his brother back from a suicidal charge. Black goggles leveled with his brother's dark eyes as he brought the young Oni's attention to him, "Chill Bro, Sista' wouldn't want you rushin' in all half-cocked jus'ta get clocked!" his voice lowered as he leaned in closer, " 'Specially cause'a summin' 'bout her, yo," the younger brother glanced over his shoulder, eyeing the old man through his goggles, " 'n you know he just tryin' mess wit you…" he faced his brother again, noticing the man had calmed down some, "get you bustin' to his beat without a head on ya shoulda's…"

"You even more'a pussy boy?!" that old bastard's boisterous voice called out to the brothers, "Gettin' put down by that lil' bastard, tch," he spit, "not'ta mention hiding behind that little girl's skirt…"

Jin pushed forward with a growl but Bee pushed him back in place, forcing him to notice him, "Chill bro!"

The Raikage just smirked seeing the fire in his son, "What you got, huh?" he cocked his chin in a dismissive way, "That Jinchuuriki and that R&D reject? HA!" the large Oni's hands waved out wide, "I got a whole _**VILLAGE**_ backin' me boy!"

Jin put a hand on Bee's shoulder, shoving the slightly smaller man out of the way just so he had a direct line of sight with his old man, "I only need them to support me old man, the village doesn't give a damn which murdering bastard sits under the hat," a slight smirk picked at the younger Oni's lips, "and at least I got the balls to go after my opponent myself!"

The smirk suddenly dropped from the old Raikage, an almost snarl taking its place, "The hell you talkin' about boy…"

Beady black eyes narrowed on the man, "Thought I wouldn't find out about your special order?" his shoulders rolled in an agitated way, "That you had those assassins lined up to take me out should I ever get ballsy enough to come after you?"

The Raikage didn't move, not a single muscle and that was all the confirmation anyone needed. Jin growled as the old bastard just shrugged after a long second, "So? They're my weapons; I can point them wherever I want…"

The younger blonde spit, "Not even gonna try are you…"

"Feh," the older Oni just shrugged, obviously not seeing the problem here, "Kept your punkass in its place this long, what changed?" that sinister fanged grin returned, "You wanna test their patience? Figured you'd know all about just _how long_ they can wait…"

Jin gain a thuggish look, threatening but not attacking… then something familiar came over his senses and something white entered his peripheries. An unconscious grin spread on the young Oni's face, he could always count on her.

Odd colored eyes narrowed as again the smirk slipped from the older Raikage's face, "The fuck you smilin' 'bout boy?"

And smile he did, showing his own sharp canines, "Just the fact your one line of defense is gone…"

Those odd eyes narrowed… then the large Oni finally noticed the sudden white thing, now coated in red, "The fuck…?"

Satsuki was kneeling behind her Lord, slightly to the left as she erased any sign of weakness from her form, voice coming out in a smooth lilt, "All whom serve the Raikage are no more," the woman's white head rose just enough to stare daggers at the old Raikage, "You are free to act as you see fit my Lord."

That triumphant grin never left Jin's smug face, "Thank you Satsuki," he shrugged off his jacket, stepping forward while cracking his knuckles knowing the woman would dutifully catch the thing before even a corner touched the ground, "Now, old man, I believe we had some _business_ to settle."

The Raikage's eyes went from his smug son cracking his neck to the small white woman behind him folding the idiot's jacket and calming standing by the Jinchuuriki. The snarl was audible as he turned his gaze to stare at his son, "What a fucking waste…"

Jin rolled his shoulders, taking a grappler's stance, "You said it yourself old man, they were just tools to you…"

The large man raised his fists, cracking his knuckles threatening, "Yea, _**my**_ tools," for a moment his eyes caught the small white woman again and he had that sinister smirk as he turned back to his son, "Guess they had gotten blunt," the grin spread as he watched his son's face, "Suppose I'll just have send that sharp little blade of yours back to R&D and have them… _resupply_… the losses."

A wave of killing intent spread over the platform, though it was impossible to tell who it was from. The small white assassin was snarling at the old Raikage, held back only by the large Jinchuuriki next to her who was also frowning at the Raikage. But neither of their responses matched Jin's; the moment his brain registered what his father was saying chakra ran across his skin, sparking as lightning danced between his fingers and the urge to rip off his father's head increased.

The Raikage simply reveled in their responses, intoxicated by the feel of killing intent that actually registered to him. It had been so long. "HAHAHAHAHAHA!" his hands went out forming light fists as his body reacted to the feel of being _threatened_, instantly hardening at the anticipation of a fight. He just gave a snarling grin to his son, one last thing he supposed, to send the brat over the edge, "And you know what…" unconsciously he licked his lips, "I think I'll help them," that grin spread, "Find out what she feels like on the inside," the looks that passed their faces were priceless as the man just laughed again, "HAHAHA, Maybe then I'll get a son that's not afraid to kill!"

There was a flash of lightning as a bolt ominously struck in the center of the platform, punching right through it…

It didn't matter, as Jin was seeing red, having charged at his father the moment the lightning struck. His natural chakra danced along his body, sending his muscles into overdrive and giving the large Oni a burst of speed even the lightning couldn't keep up with.

His fist connected with the side of his father's face, sending out a sonic boom that ripped through the platform…

The first blow had been struck.

… and the Raikage could only grin, "That all you got?" before sending his own chakra enhanced fist into Jin's stomach, threatening to punch a hole right through him.

The younger Oni simply growled, tightening the muscles in his abdomen to take the blow as he went after his old man with his other fist. The older Oni just raised his shoulder, catching the fist between his ear and shoulder, using the second of lost moment on his son's part to draw up his other arm and elbow him in the face, sending the fool off through several buildings…

The older Oni just grunted, chasing after his son… their fight was only just beginning.

* * *

"Shiiiiiiiit!" Bee grabbed Satsuki and jumped away to another building, cutting the bridge lines as the platform started collapsing to prevent the entire system from going with it. The Hachibi Jinchuuriki hopped several terraces, holding on as tight as he could as a cacophony of sonic booms shook the entire village.

And to make matters worse, the rain finally started.

"Bee!" the smaller white woman called from his arm.

"Sista'!" the big rapper-wannabe glanced down mid-scaling, thinking the woman was going to complain about the indignity of being carried under his arm, instead he saw her eyes focused in one solitary direction.

"Get closer, with nothing in the way!" a pale hand pointed in one direction, slightly to the right and through the building he was scaling… directly towards the vibrant sonic booms.

Small blonde brows quirked for a second over black goggles as the large man hoofed it faster to the top of the building. Once there Statsuki removed herself from his grasp, running to the far end of the roof that had a small fencing. The woman gripped the metal tight enough he could hear it start to bend as her grey eyes remained open, irises darting this way and that in a way he couldn't follow and not once did she blink.

"Sista'?" Bee came up by her side, just as she tensed, despite the rain he could hear her teeth clinch as well as the metal give a bit more, "You followin' bro?" the older woman always had some crazy abilities, and while no one could really keep up with his brother when he was going all out for some reason the idea that the small white woman next to him could follow his movements didn't surprise him as much as it probably should have.

"Mm," she nodded firmly, never looking his way or blinking despite the rain. A particularly large sonic boom hit not far from them and Bee could see her wince, "Yes, Bee… I can follow him…"

"Mmmm…" the large man crossed his arms, staring the way she was, trying to catch what she was seeing. He could follow the sonic booms and the destruction, but beyond that was only a blur, and the damn rain wasn't helping, "Tch, he better be doin' alright, else they gunna bust up the village for no damn reason…"

"He's leading the Raikage away," the white assassin could feel as the large Jinchuuriki turned her way, that surprised pout on his face with his small blonde brows twitching like he was blinking. A small, worried, smile picked up on the side of her lips, "He wouldn't be taking such a beating without a plan first…"

That pouting scowl passed Bee's face as he grumbled, "An' I thought the foo' was just goin' gung-ho caus'a yo…" the moment Bee's words made it to his brain his shoulders went to his ears as he realized he probably shouldn't have said that.

The next instant Satsuki gripped the fence… then vaulted over it and was literally sliding down the building, jumping to the next, next, and further on.

"Aw hell!" Bee called out, "Wait! Sista' I didn't- shit!" immediately the Jinchuuriki jumped over the building's small fence, landing on the side roof of one part and vaulting off chasing after her, quickly catching up.

"You're getting slow, they're almost to the edge of the village," the small woman sniped the moment he was next to her, causing the man to grumble as they hopped roofs, bridges and cables to follow the line of destruction the two battling Oni caused.

"Hmp!" Bee huffed, running alongside her. He could feel the direction the chakra was heading, as well as the various other chakra signatures 'waking up' in the village. If they didn't hurry ANBU might get involved and then their little Coup might end up a total failure. "SHIT!" immediately Bee's hands went together as the two ran and he started channeling the Hachibi's chakra, "Hachi, you up!" the dark skinned man grinned with those long canines as he effortlessly formed the chakra cloak of the eight tails Ushi-Oni. Horns of chakra grew out of the man's head along with five tentacle-like tails from the base of his spine. After a long series of hand seals the tails split off, forming chakra imbued clones of the Hachibi-container as the original once again grabbed the small woman by his side and kicked off at several times their previous speed.

Satsuki merely growled from her position, "Was that really necessary?" she never liked the feel of Bee's demon chakra… it just sent an uncomfortable tingly sensation under her skin and brought back bad memories she'd rather keep buried, but years around Jin's younger brother had lower the sensation from a need to 'kill' the man to mildly annoying.

Those elongated canines showed as the chakra cloaked man grinned widely, "You was complainin' we goin' too slow, Sista'~" his grin dropped when he faced forward, a somewhat serious look crossing his face, " 'sides, like this I don't need you guidin' me… I can see them already…"

The white woman simply nodded, "I take it your clones will handle anything else from the village?"

Again with that stupid grin, "Hell they'll be too distracted by the sudden demon chakra to care 'bout our boy doin' his thing~"

"Mm," a blank look came over the woman's face as she scanned the area; they'd left the city limits and were in the rocky training grounds. She could still feel the sonic booms of the two Oni fighting, just couldn't _see_ anything and it was bothering her, "So… no rapping?" it was an idle observation, something to just end the silence.

"Hmp," she knew the man was pouting, he always did when she pointed out his tendency to try and rap everything, "Ain't really the time fo' a rhyme…"

"Internal," the stupid exchange caused a small smile to tug at her lips, which was immediately brought down into a sad frown as the weight of the situation sunk into the silence around them, "Bee, if your father wins…"

"He ain't…" was the Hachibi-container's quick response.

"If he does," she said with enough force to halt any protest, "I… I won't be able to deny any command he gives… I'll have to… he'll… he'll be my-" the woman bite her lower lip as an unconscious tremble went through her body.

"He ain't…" Bee adamantly said again, not liking feeling the strong woman in his arms tremble like that, it wasn't right, "Bro'll beat him…" he could only feel the woman give a firm nod.

Silence picked up around them again as they made it to a plateau that seemed close enough to the fight. Bee ran to the edge and spotted the two Oni charged up fully and duking it out in full force on a smaller plateau below that seemed to have been made by their fighting. Immediately he set the smaller woman down and lowered his Hachibi aura, not fully dissipating it as he couldn't follow the fight without the sensory enhancements.

"Bee," Satsuki said in a low voice as she crossed her arms, nervously running her hands over her upper arms, her eyes finding the fight and never looking away, "Kill me if he fails…"

Bee could only frown, having no words to say. Without thinking his hand reached out and gripped around the woman's smaller shoulder, she didn't tense but he could feel her tremble, worried for their future, worried about him, but mostly worried about his brother. His thumb ran along the upper part of her arm as he spoke in a low serious voice, "He won't fail…" –_He's never failed me… and especially not you_-

A pale hand raised enough to grab the larger man's hand, hoping he was right.

"Besides," a hopeful grin spread across the Jinchuuriki's face as he held his friend tight, "Old man may got'ta strongest spear and strongest shield, but bro's got the one thing that can always bust'em both!" gray eyes glanced at the man, both of them knowing he was just being hopeful in a situation all too real for either of them, but the way those grey eyes looked at him, the _need_ for something to hold on to, pushed Bee forward, he had to say, had to give her a reason to think past this fight, "Cause bro's got the hammer, an' ain't nuthin' can stand up to his strike, sho'!" with his free hand Bee pumped his fist.

Against her will, a smirk rose on the pale woman's lips as her grey eyes turned back to the fight, desperately hoping Bee was right…

* * *

Another thunder strike, another fist, another sonic boom, another explosion of sound, sense, and loss of all the above…

Jin's eyes spun as his father's knee hit him full in the face…

A second for the two battling Oni was a fraction of time in the 'real world', the one where the village existed, the one where his brother made those stupid rhymes, where-

This time it was an elbow drop on his shoulder, the pain barely registered as the jumping electricity along his skin kept his muscles flexed to their maximum, maintaining a shield of pure flesh that didn't bow even when his bones were little more than powder…

He reached out in a grapple and instinct as his mind was gone long ago, lost in the fight of flesh as hard as steel and lightning…

Hands like iron gripped muscles like steel as the young Oni roared, moving to snap his father's arm…

Another chakra imbued fist was hitting the back of his head, another roar as the blood pumping behind his eyes distorted his vision…

It didn't matter, he didn't need to see, his lightning showed him where to go, what to do, how to move… instinct was the most powerful weapon he had next pure brute strength…

An inch and his father's lightning quick hand would have pierced his heart; instead it scrapped the side of his chest, exposing ribs, flesh, blood and bone…

His fist came in an explosive force directly over the old man's heart, where that scar was, the old Oni's greatest shame and for a moment the hardened muscle underneath stopped…

Pure impact…

The younger Oni followed up with a devastating headbutt, fracturing both their already cracked skulls and setting both seeing stars from internal damage…

Jin pressed forward, moving on pure instinct and will, used to pushing his body far beyond what it should have been capable of, beyond what any human was capable of doing and surviving, his muscles were wound steel, his bones broken and reset so many times they were adamantium…

An entire electrified weapon designed to do nothing but inflict and survive pure impact…

His father's body had been hardened years ago, no blade could pierce it, no weapon could scrap it, not even the loose Hachibi could gore the old bastard… many saw the Third Raikage's body as the perfection of physical defense, a body incapable of being pierced, even by his own ultimate spear…

What people fail to realize…

No shield is a perfect defense… at some point it will always give, even to something as blunt as a rock with enough force…

Jin had spent his whole life studying his father's technique, his 'perfect' Juggernaut Armor and ultimate piercing strikes… he learned to be fast and to be strong, to hit with an overwhelming force that could _**crush**_ anything, _**ANYTHING**_ that got in his way. He was faster than his father, as the man never _needed_ to chase, pursue, or dodge, so he could dodge and evade his piercing strikes, limiting the damage to a minimum. His body was used to pain, used to knowing he was hurt, unlike the old man that could barely feel anymore… as 'feeling' was for the weak…

As the young Oni bashed and bashed and bashed at the old man's chest, pushing the ultimate shield to its limit and bursting organs with pure impact damage, he knew his father was weak for giving up something so inherently instinctive…

Pain told when one was in danger, it allowed one to react and recognize what was around them, to fix what was broken…

The Old Oni's body was so hardened, so impervious it had forgotten was a scratch was, it had forgotten what internal bleeding felt like, it had long since missed the feel of anything 'wrong' within due to its pursuit of keeping everything out.

For a moment in real time, the Third Raikage stepped back and coughed up blood…

As the old man paused to touch the unfamiliar feeling on his lip, the warm black liquid he pulled back on his large fingers he realized at least one of his lungs had ruptured and his heart was barely pumping anymore…

Normally, when an animal is wounded it becomes terrified and lashes out in violence due to a slight madness brought on by the concept it is about to die…

Instead the Third Raikage grinned, snarling something wicked and cruel as his odd colored eyes took in the sorry state of his son, singed, burned, muscles about to burst with so many punctures on his sides as he stared back at the blood on his hand…

And laughed.

"That it?" a massive arm ran across the man's face, wiping away the rest of the blood as he stood tall, proud and smug even if he knew half his body had long since given up. He spat out a chunk of bone, probably a tooth, along with enough black blood to be obvious while still grinning at his son, "That all you got? Throw a tantrum and smash everything in sight?"

It was amazing anything of Jin's conscious mind was left in the young Oni as it growled and seethed, hands nothing but tight fists as lightning danced across his skin, over flexed muscle the only thing keeping him standing…

The old Oni reached a hand in his mouth and pulled out a scrap of tooth, tossing it over the edge as he could feel the unfamiliar rhythm in his chest, some cavity of his heart was ruptured and it wouldn't be all that long. He looked at the feral creature that was his son in full battle frenzy, partly proud, partly sad, "You got the balls to finish the job boy…?"

A reverberation that sounded like low thunder came from the young Oni…

Odd eyes glanced away, realizing how far from the village their brawl had taken them, only two witnesses apparently having followed them. Part of the old man smiled, of course it was those two, "I told you what I'd do if you didn't kill me…" he glanced back serious over his shoulder, intending every word.

The growl lessened as lightning covered fists shook, "Why…"

A brow cocked on the old Oni.

"_**WHY?!**_" Jin roared to the heavens.

"Why what?" the Raikage was oddly calm for a man about to die.

Jin ground his teeth as he snarled out, "Why does it have to _**BE**_ this way?!" covered in blood, sweat and tears he stared at his father. During their fight, their brutal exchange of blows he had felt so many things, realized to much so fast his mind was still trying to find its place.

"Hmp," the Raikage dismissively snorted, "We're Kumo, that's why…"

"ARAGH!" Jin roared, "What does it matter? I kill you, same as you killed your father? Same as he killed his all the way back to the founding?!" the mighty Oni wanted nothing but to hit something, smash mountains into rubble and throw lightning into the sky.

"It's to prove you have the _right!_" for once the Raikage's voice was stern without the condescending sneer. Surprise passed Jin's face as he faced his father, those odd eyes finally looking at him for once as the man continued, "It's to prove you are better than the generation before you," with what strength the man had left he held out a fist, strong and proud, "To prove you have the strength to carry on until the next one…"

Teeth clinched, face furrowed, all that was running around in Jin's mind was finally starting to make sense, "It doesn't have to _**be**_ this way!"

"OR WHAT?!" the old Oni roared, "You let me live, lock me away where my supporters can get me and I can retaliate, so I can come back and damage this village more!"

Small black eyes widen at his father's threat.

Another growl from the dying Oni, "Man up boy," grey blonde brows lower as the man looked upon his son completely serious, "Be the Raikage, take what is yours," again he held up his hand, tightening it into a fist, "and ensure nothing can take it from you until the day your son comes around and thinks he's got the balls to do what must be done to ensure his future!"

That was it.

It all finally made sense.

Jin stared at his father as he could finally see; finally understand the man in front of him. The reason, the _true_ reason the line of Raikage had been in his family only, why his father had pushed him so hard and threatened his very existence from day one.

He had wanted him strong.

Kumo wasn't soft like Konoha, weak like Kiri, stagnant like Iwa, and dying like Suna. It was alive and breathing and fighting for its future, and would remain as such.

Kumo was willing to die for the future, to ensure it existed, the village continued, the next generation was stronger than the last…

The Raikage had to be willing to wipe out the previous generation to ensure that future…

The Raikage had to be willing to shoulder the pain, strong enough to keep fighting, and willing to die when the next came around strong enough…

For the first time in his entire life, Jin felt his father loved him.

The former Raikage grinned, seeing his son understand; "Now c'mon boy," he held out his fist, "Don't make me lose faith in you at the last second…"

With a tumultuous roar Jin released every bit of chakra he had, lightning jumped from the clouds surrounding him, invading his body as he gave over completely to the Oni's rage. With unseeing eyes, rage, raw power, lightning, and everything he had ever felt for the man throughout his entire light he disappeared…

… only to show back up with his fist through his father's chest.

The ultimate shield had been broken, the ultimate spear abandoned, as the last thing the Third Raikage did was smile at his son for finally beating him.

…

..

.

The following silence was deafening as the Oni finally let go of his power, his father's corpse falling from his arm, blood pulsing and running along his body, but all he could feel were the tears running down his cut cheeks…

Jin collapsed, mind completely blank, his body broken and bleeding from the struggle.

Almost instantly strong small hands were turning him over and his unseeing eyes caught only white. She was probably saying something as what felt cold was pressed to his cheek, ignoring the blood, ignoring the tears…

For a moment he just stared at her, something crossing her pale face he knew but couldn't understand, not now, not ever… it made his chest clinch and the pain of what just happened come flooding back…

* * *

"Never…"

The voice was so low and so broken Satsuki barely heard it, too preoccupied with taking assessment of her Lord's wounds… and the spreading excitement that he had actually won.

"… n-never…"

She noticed his chest hiccupped; he had several scraps on his sides where his father had attempted to pierce his heart but missed by the smallest of margin. It was this motion that caught her attention…

"N-nn…" his large hand moved with exceptionally more effort than it should have taken.

Grey eyes noticed the movement, glancing at his hand before returning to his face all banged up, bruised and bleeding. At first she had purposely ignored his face, some part of her recognizing the tears on his face and giving him the respect to not witness them, it was her duty to maintain her Lord's pride after all.

But the look on his face, the absolutely raw nature in his small black eyes…

"Never… again…"

White brows rose slightly concerned as she stared at him, never moving as his large hand took an exceptionally long time to rise and make its way to her cheek.

For a moment small black eyes just vacantly stared into concerned grey ones as his dark thumb rubbed across her pale face…

"My Lord?" her soft concerned voice, coupled with a small pale hand reached up to cup his own, brought some focus back to the downed Oni's eyes. His thumb ran under her eye again and Satsuki wasn't sure how to interpret the look on his face or the action…

Then his eyes seemed to gain enough sense to them and he finally spoke…

"I never want to have kids…"

The pale woman froze, eyes wide on her Lord.

Something pinched at the sides of Jin's eyes as they started to unfocus again, "Never…" his hand slipped from her pale face, "Never want to… put them through… that…"

She tried to grab his arm as the appendage slipped away in shock, "But my Lord-!"

"BUT WHAT?!" he yelled, hand forming into a fist as he pulled it from her concerned one, eyes still unfocused as the downed Oni quickly lost all fire, "But what…?" tears fell from his eyes as tiny black eyes stared at the cloudy grey sky above, "continue generations of patricide? Force my child to suffer this lingering hatred…" his teeth ground as his voice lowered to the point only Satsuki could hear, "… never allow them to truly understand that I love them…" his jaw clinched tighter along with his fists at his sides, "until the end…"

Silence was his only response as Satsuki tried to understand his words. They struck her, deep down in a way she couldn't understand or unravel at the moment and she tried to keep focus on her Lord… she needed to see him safe, see he was okay, see-

"The village…" his eyes were getting more unfocused, "the village will live on after me, its… its…" his hands went lax, his muscles finally giving to fatigue, "It's Kumo… it's strong…" and his eyes closed, finally succumbing to the fatigue of his injuries.

Satsuki trembled as she stared at the man unconscious in her lap, mind completely blank. Logically she knew his words shouldn't concern her, he was her Lord, her chosen master, the only thing that should matter to her was his life, not that of his lineage or legacy.

But something broke inside Satsuki as she watched him… something she didn't even know was there…

Was it truly so worthless? Everything she had done to protect him, all she would do to protect him?

Her shoulder was shaking as Bee placed his hand on it. Looking at the two of them was painful enough, now seeing his brother, watching his Sista' tremble, feeling it through his hand, it was almost unbearable.

"Bee," how flat her voice was made it significantly worse, "Watch him."

The large Jinchuuriki could only nod. She never, _**NEVER**_ left the man unguarded… but now? There was nothing he could say, only nod as she disappeared.

* * *

It seemed with the conclusion of the fight the only sound left in the world was the rain.

The fighting had stopped immediately, both in the village and outside as the Hachibi clones had immediately dispersed allowing the ANBU forces to search out the Raikage's presence, some realizing the distinct _lack_ of a certain Oni's raw chakra. Some citizens were left to pick up the pieces, a few short hours and a surprising amount of damage had befallen the Village Hidden in the Clouds, most at the hands of one person…

Despite the rain pattering endlessly on the deck, Reki noticed the sudden shift immediately, the absence of sound, of presence, just the sudden entrance. Black eyes hazily rose from her position, having huddled around the body of her dead lover the whole time, not registering a thing.

Until she saw the blank form of a woman she should hate.

Satsuki was standing several feet from her, just _standing_ there as if staring… only her grey eyes were completely unfocused and nothing passed her face.

Something about the look sparked recognition in the torture expert, it was the look of someone broken…

_That_ awoke something in the older woman as the moment the pale white woman's knees hit the ground Reki was in front of her, dead lover abandoned as she held the girl's shoulders trying to steady her, "H-hey Satsu-" the woman buckled under the dead weight, as if the girl had just shut down. Without thinking black eyes scanned her, looking for any wound, some bruise, a sign that somewhere she had been injured to explain the dead look on her face.

There was nothing…

Tan hands moved up to the younger woman's pale face, holding her dead gaze with concerned black eyes, "Satsuki!" a resounding slap across the girl's face didn't even garner a movement, it was as if she was completely dead.

Reki's hands went to the girl's throat, pressing her thumbs to her carotid artiries, a motion few would allow as it was the easiest way to strangle someone besides checking their pulse. It was still there, her heart was still moving but why wasn't she responsive? Black brows furrowed as Reki forced the last assassin to look her in the eyes, debating if she should use her eyes to snap the girl she once knew out of whatever was going on…

Then a pale hand moved, gripped the older woman's arm firmly as a spark returned, a flash of something in those dull grey eyes.

Reki had a moment to glance at the rough grip before returning to the woman's eyes, something cold and lifeless still there but it was anything but dead, "Satsu-?"

The white woman removed the older jounin's arm, rising to her feet and not even sparing a glance as she briskly walked away, mechanically as if nothing had occurred.

It would take Reki years to realize, but the girl she once knew, the one she had taken into her care and in some sense helped raise and abandoned… that girl was dead and she had just watched her die in her own arms. What had just gotten up and walked away from her as if nothing had happened wasn't human, just a pure killing machine in human form…

* * *

"_Never… again…"_

-_Why…_-

It was the only question running through Satsuki's mind and she had no idea why.

Her Lord had won, he was the Raikage, she would not be sent back to R&D, would not be used by his father, would not be looked down upon by the clan anymore…

They were gone… no one to stop her, to regulate her, to tell her what was what anymore except him, because he was her Lord.

But he did not need her either…

In some logical part of her mind she recognized her Lord would need to propagate for the future of his lineage, to continue the legacy of his blood and title. She had decided to be there to judge whomever he chose to be his mate, to ensure he would have a worthy successor and excellent opponent in the future… as well as someone capable of either killing her or being a worthy master after her Lord. If no worthy spouse could be chosen she had been willing to offer herself for her Lord's use, after all a man such as him needed a worthy successor and she would not disappoint him. She was the strongest of her clan, obviously…

"_I never want to have kids…_"

… but then he'd said that, and part of her did not understand.

He had won.

He beat his father, he was free to do as he wanted, pursue who and what he wanted, no one in the village could literally stop him, both physically and politically now.

Why would he say that?

Why would he give up a future…?

One they'd all fought so hard for… one _**she**_ had fought so hard for… nearly killing herself to wipe out her clan, to stop them from killing him, from laying a hand on him, from doing him any harm! Didn't he know! Didn't he understand!

… no.

No.

… She was no one, they all were, always had been. They did not have desires, did not have ambitions, did not wish or dream of anything beyond what they were…

He did not need a judge, did not need a consort, did not need any of that… did not want it…

No.

He only needed someone to watch him, to ensure his life as long as he desired it.

He only needed someone to remove his enemies.

He only needed a blade.

He only needed an Assassin.

…

..

.

Then she would only _**be**_ an Assassin.

* * *

Several days later, after the village was fixed and the news of the former Raikage's death and his son's ascension, Gouzin Jinrai, the Yondaime Raikage, opened his eyes.

He saw the familiar white ceiling of the Kumo General Hospital… and he couldn't move. A quick glance showed most of his body was wrapped in a cast, covered in healing seals, and if his nose wasn't wrong soaked in salves.

"Your injuries should be fully healed within the week, Lord Raikage," a stern, low, almost mechanical voice spoke next to him.

A glance and he saw mostly black, grey, and white, "Satsu-" the large man growled, it hurt to speak, his throat dry from obviously being incapacitated for however many days. It was a mild comfort knowing she was there looking over him. As the woman stepped forward, seeming to examine him, the large immobile Oni noticed there was something wrong with her eyes. They had always been sharp and hard, usually to anyone she was trying to intimidate, but there had always been something behind them that was open to him, something he didn't realize was there until this moment, now that they were so empty.

"Killer Bee and I have been handling the transition in the village," her voice was cold, clipped, barely anything about it recognizable from the woman that followed him into battle, "It seemed prudent to inform the village of the deaths and provide a supplemental reasoning for it…"

"W-why?" his voice was hoarse, rough and agitated, wondering why she had not offered him a drink.

Those sharp daggers of eyes shifted to his and there was nothing there he recognized, "They needed to understand the power you wield." Her words were cold and it took a moment for him to realize she meant the people she had killed to protect him, the extent of the clan she had wiped out in his name.

He swallowed hard, more for his dry throat then any kind of disturbance. It was important he establish power quickly now that he had killed his father, become the Raikage, it seemed his assassin had seen fit to do so in his absence. She and his brother were ensuring his life while he recovered, threatening anyone that would deny his claim and showing his power while he was incapacitated. Cruel, but effective.

With a mild cough to get something to go down his throat he stared at her sharper eyes, "Anything… else?"

"Yes," her voice was clipped as she seemed to just stare, "You will refer to me as solely 'Kemui' from now on," she abruptly turned to leave and he noticed her thin braids, all _**three**_ of them, "You are the Raikage now, it would be inappropriate to refer to each other so informally…" her hand was on the door before he had a chance to respond.

"Satsuki?!" small blonde brows furrowed and everything ached as he tried to turn to her, desperate to move towards and grasp what she meant.

She didn't turn around, only said one word, "Kemui," before opening the door and exiting, her three braids trailing behind her.

As the door clicked closed, Jin lost all resistance, laying his head back on the pillows holding him up as the rest of his body succumbed to the numbing salves. –_What just happened?_- he barely remembered the end of the fight, just the pain he felt at his father… the bastard, showing his love at the moment of his death, what a jerk… he had hurt so much, all over, both physically and emotionally and probably said something to her. She had been there to make sure he was alive, like always, she had seemed normal, grateful… something happened right? Was it something he said?

The large Oni shook his head as best he could, figuring he should rest, leave the rest to those he trusted to do their jobs while he recovered. His comrade's strange behavior still bothered him, but it was probably just the stress… that had to be it right?

For a moment, even though he had won, gained everything he had worked so hard to achieve, Jin felt he had lost something important along the way…

* * *

Named OC List:

'Kemui' Satsuki - 'Smokey' May - The 'Last Assassin'

Seichi - Subtle - Kemui's subordinate

Naota - 'truth' - Genin

Shiyori - 'out of pride' - Naota's partner

Gakushin Reki - 'Learn by being Run Over' - desk clerk

Daiyo - substitution - Reki's second lover

People I'm Borrowing:

The Third Raikage - awesome bastard!

The Fourth Raikage - WYCH name 'Gouzin Jinrai' - Roaring Thunderclap - BADASS!

Killer Bee - Hachibi Container and supah Rapper

* * *

**A/N:** for those familiar with WYCH format, i usually translate (read: butcher) the names of the OCs or anyone new introduced, as this is a span off, there y'all go that didn't bother with reading the long one :3 Shiyori and Daiyo are the only ones 'introduced' here, along with the Third Raikage, everyone else is somewhere in WYCH...

i honestly don't have much else to say as this is just padding for anyone else that likes WYCH and curious about the 'other' things that run through my mind, if you're new, i hope you enjoy the story as well even if slightly confusing... woo, context! :D

to be honest i liked writing the Third as a total dick... it amused me more then it should, the hard part was writing 'Satsuki' instead of Kemui like i'm used to ._. that transition was rough, but hey its there! :D maybe this'll satisfy all you with questions about THOSE TWO... or drive you more insane like they do to me!

Comments, questions, opposing views? (send me a request in a review of any specific characters anyone wants an aside on, otherwise i'll just throw stuff in here at my leisure~)

Till next -salute-waves- Sayounara, Mina!

-Ikasury


	2. The Reason Uzushiogakure Burned

**A/N:** now for something completely stupid! :D

Non-canon (mostly) - relatively 20 years prior to WYCH - more just a silly bs thing i did between Reki and Uzushio (Uzumaki Shishio at this time) because those two have such a fabulous HATE-love relationship, i like to play with it... also blaming a certain someone for getting the idea of shipping them into my head and the horrors that brought about...

ENJOY! :D

* * *

The reason Uzushiogakure burned…

During the 'peaceful' time between the second and third World War there was a prolonged conflict between Kumo and Konoha over a neighboring village called Uzushiogakure. The Village Hidden in the Whirlpools was an island nation that had easy access to both the land of fire and land of lightning so both Kumo and Konoha often laid claim to the village and its resources, especially during wartime, and more particularly when the two villages weren't bluntly at war with one another. In fact Uzushiogakure was a particularly neutral village in most conflicts, acting only as mercenaries if the price was right. Konoha liked to play the 'we have Senjuu and Uchiha card, so you Uzumaki cousins should help us' garnering _cheaper_ prices while the Uzumaki begrudgeingly _helped_ their mainland cousins. Kumo typically just paid them an exorbitant amount and let the Uzumaki dabble in one of their lesser 'known' traits of just wanton indiscriminant destruction. Hey, sometimes those seal masters just needed to let loose and blow shit up, and Kumo was always good for that and their coin… the uncouth brutes…

Now, in ages to come Uzushiogakure would fade into the background of history and utterly forgotten like most 'minor' villages despite the Uzumaki, their primary clan, being the ones that essentially invented seals, but details…

It is a wide known event that Uzushiogakure was eventually burned to the ground, most countries believing it to be by Kumo because of some shady deal, to acquire the Uzumaki secrets, or whatever other nonsense…

The truth of the matter is far, far, **_far_** more stupid…

At the age of 20, Gakushin Reki was the Company Commander of Kumo's mysterious Company 1, from what spies and other information networks could gather this company was basically Kumo's ANBU Assault squad. They went in, killed everyone and everything, quickly and quietly, and basically softened up any armies so the primary force assault companies, A and B, could mop up easy-peasy. What most other villages didn't know, or probably couldn't understand, was that the current Company Commander for Company 1, Gakushin Reki, was actually a jounin assigned to Company 0… she had just so happened to be assigned to 1 while they were in 'peaceful reconnaissance' and their former Commander was killed… some sketchy stuff happened, involving a black death mask, some wire, and several creative suggestions from the nut job that resulted in her taking over the obviously suicidal position. No one else in the company seemed to bother complaining, at least the young nut job didn't have them running right into the fray and getting killed…

What does the Commander of Kumo's Company 1 and Uzushiogakure have to do with one another?

Simple, after finishing some of those 'peaceful reconnaissance' missions in the general area of Whirlpool, the Company Commander decided to have a bit of a break for her company, a rare thing indeed for hardened ANBU. So a bathhouse in Uzu was quickly appropriated and paid off so the Kumo ANBU could take off their weeks-old-gore-covered-and-filthy outfits, beat up masks, and just strip down to relax in some of Uzu's prized hot springs.

The Company Commander herself had ordered and exorbitant amount of sake for her Company and the place to themselves, all the staff _politely_ suggested to leave, _quickly_. Most of the staff saw no reason to deny the crazy visiting Kumo-nin, they got their money; plenty enough to pay for any possible damages, and the nut jobs didn't seem bothered at all about serving themselves. Oddly, according to several staff leaving, there were a few members of the Company that seemed separate, wearing all white unmarked clothing as opposed to the blacks of the obvious ANBU, and were apparently seen 'serving' the other members. Many of the staff didn't even bat an eye at that, it was may countries' opinion that Kumo went around raiding and capturing slaves, as their precursors did, so it wouldn't be _that_ strange for a Company, even an ANBU Company, to have some random slaves to serve the jerkbags…

Whatever the details, the ANBU and their odd slave-like members were left to their own devices while the normal staff of this particular bath house left expecting to find a totaled bath in the morning…

Since this was an unprecedented set up none of the 'regulars' of this particular bath knew about the sudden setup. Sure, many had the common sense to realize when the normal staff weren't there that something was up and went to the next one over, but a few were brave, or stupid, enough to investigate. Several of the Uzu-nin that went this route wound up on their asses outside the establishment, courtesy of the strangely white-clothed individuals attached to the Kumo Company.

When it was a young girl's turn to watch the door, some of the Uzu-nin wound up getting more than being tossed out on their asses… a few needing to go to the hospital with unusual cuts.

This caught the attention of the Lord of the Uzumaki clan, and closest thing to a leader Uzushiogakure had; Uzumaki Shishio. The over a hundred year old Uzumaki simply left from his desk of trivial paperwork; more bitching from Konoha about some inane 'we're family do what we say' bs along with a new 'request' from the current Raikage and maybe a few others from other countries, and decided to check out what was going on at this bath house.

Uzumaki Shishio was an intimidating man, with narrow purple eyes, that naturally slightly tanned skin of the Uzumaki baring a few wrinkles from his great age, and that familiar Uzumaki red hair, now with small flecks of grey turning it _slightly_ less red. No one would admit it, at least not to his face, but if his hair went any more 'grey' it would start to look pink. The man's tall and stern stature made such comments nonexistent in his presence.

So for such a normally intimidating man to be stopped at the door to a bath house by what looked to be a twelve year old possible girl; small, pale, nearly sickly looking with cropped white hair, it was rather hilarious.

"You will move, girl," the man's narrow purple eyes bore into the small white wearing girl. Such a look _normally_ sent many of his jounin to their knees.

The girl didn't flinch; in fact she barely seemed to move at all, her sharp grey eyes just looking up at him as she seemed to vacantly stare at anyone that approached the building, "No."

Shishio frowned, rubbing his short mustache as he tried to figure this girl out, "And why not?"

The girl's head tilted slightly, "The Commander has bought this place for the evening, for the safety and security of the Company, no one else is to enter…"

A red brow rose, well that was more then he knew a moment ago. The tall man folded his arms into his long sleeves and stared at the girl for a good long second, "I am the leader of this Village, do you understand that?"

The girl nodded.

His eyes narrowed, "Then do you understand that that means I have a higher rank then your _Commander_, and she has commandeered this building without consulting me?"it was a long shot, but the girl didn't seem to be wearing a hitae-ate nor have any kind of weapon, so the older gentleman was hard pressed to figure she was truly a konoichi under this 'Commander' she had mentioned. He hoped the girl had some concept of social structure, or at least believed him about the rank thing, and would allow him to meet this 'Commander' of hers.

After a long minute of the girl just disturbingly staring at him she moved to the side, allowing him access to pass.

A red brow rose further, but Shishio wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth and took a step forward, noticing as the girl nodded to someone in the corner before following him as they made their way to the private baths. The older shinobi glanced over his shoulder and noticed a shaggy pale blonde step out of the shadows, wearing all white like the girl, and take up a position at the door. Whoever these 'others' were that the Company were employing, they were just as militant as any other shinobi he knew.

It didn't take long before they were passing the baths, and while Shishio thought that would be their destination, he was surprised when the girl, whom he realized had a long thin braid, just kept walking passed him as he stopped. She headed for one of the stairs leading to the upper floors of the bath house, to the spare rooms. Again a red brow rose, but the tall man merely shrugged and followed the girl still. Without bothering to stretch his senses he could distinctly hear a number of voices in the baths, male and female, likely the other members of the Company.

The two traveled up three flights of steps to the fourth floor and to what Shishio knew to be the largest and most extravagant room. The man could only shake his head as the girl kneeled to open the door. –_Of course the jerk would take the most extravagant room…_-

With the door open the young girl remained in a bow, not speaking or moving, simply waiting for him to pass so she may close it and likely stand guard.

The older shinobi had to give the young girl props, she couldn't be more then twelve yet had a better grasp of etiquette and her place then most genin he knew. With the slightest of nods Shishio stepped into the room, unsurprised as the door closed behind him with barely a sound.

Now inside the room, the leader of the Uzumaki took the time to glance around. There was a long table set out with what appeared to be the remains of a feast, likely finished off by the crowd downstairs in the baths, one door off to the side left ajar showing a ruffled futon, likely used for some proclivities, another room closed off but looking untouched and finally a door opened to an open balcony. Seeing as no one appeared in either room or the main one Shishio stepped towards the balcony.

At first he saw no one as he glanced around, but then heard the distinct sound of a fan being flicked opened and glanced to the ground. There, in a slightly open and provocative yukata, was a woman with tan skin, long black hair and black eyes, grinning with her thin eyes over a metal ribbed black fan depicting a kind of white flower he didn't recognize.

Narrow purple eyes just stared at the young woman, his first thoughts that she was a whore the Commander had 'appropriated' and likely already used. He tried to not appear miffed or offended as he turned to the woman and tried to keep his voice even, "Pardon… miss," she seemed to laugh in her throat as she moved to stand up, the front of the yukata obviously open and it was quite short. Shishio gulped, glancing back at her face, "But I am seeking the 'Commander' of the Company that has taken residence here for the night…?"

The fan was flicked shut and the woman had a strangely familiar smirk on her face as her thin eyes became sharp and narrow as she moved to lean provocatively on the railing, smirk never leaving her lips as she shamelessly glanced the older man up and down.

Shishio felt uncomfortable under the woman's gaze, something about her black eyes setting off an uncomfortable vibe in the old man's mind, as she rattled the bottom of her fan against the railing. It was at this moment he realized that attached to the ring on the bottom of the fan was a chain, a long one, a strange instrument for a common whore to have?

The woman let out a rough laugh, it was gruff and foreign sounding and Shishio's mind started to put the pieces together, "Well you found her," the woman smacked the fan to her open hand, that oddly familiar smirk morphing into something wholly cocky and foreign, "Gakushin Reki, Commander of Kumo's Company 1 at your service!"

Purple eyes widened and Shishio's lips pursed together as he didn't want to say the first thing on his mind. The _girl_ couldn't be more than 20! How in the world was she already such a high ranking Commander for Kumo, of all places, and had she no shame! He could practically see her nipples! Not that he was looking… of course not!

Reki laughed, leaning back more loosely on the railing, intentionally or unintentionally opening her front a bit more as she rested on her elbows, "You're looking a bit red there, Uzumaki~"

Shishio pouted, glaring at the woman, "Put some clothes on," he ruffled, purposely turning away, "No woman in such a position should act so… open!"

"Hehe," the woman chuckled, again that rough sound that marked her as foreign, "What, don't like what you see Uzumaki?" the man chanced a glance over his shoulder at the woman and she had one black brow furrowed challengingly with that unfamiliar cocky grin, which seemed to spread as the woman's thin black eyes caught on something on his face, "No, that can't be it, cause you're looking a little red under the collar…" to accent her words she tugged at her own loose collar.

The distinctly _red_ haired older gentlemen merely straightened and coughed into his hand, he had seen _none_ of that… _none __**at ALL!**_ He would deny to kami itself were it to ask… he saw _nothing!_

Apparently the old man's attempts at piousness were completely transparent, as that foreign woman just gave another of those loud rough laughs, pushing herself off the railing and smacking the stiff man on the shoulder as she somehow managed to saunter and gruffly 'walk' towards the low table, bending enough to grab a jug of sake, uncouthly yank the cork off with her teeth and drink possibly half of it. Wizen purple eyes were twitching by the time she finally removed the thing, spilling some down her… er, 'front' before giving a satisfied, "Ahh!" possibly accented by a completely unladylike belch…

Shishio was rightfully mortified. Never in his life had he ever met a… 'woman' so… so… **_UNFEMININE!_**

Sadly Reki was a bit dense, or drunk, either worked really, (both?) as she held out the sake bottle, that wicked cocky grin of hers wide and completely oblivious to her unladylike tendencies, "So you want any red," something wicked and fanged entered that cocky grin, "Or you just going to stare at my chest all night?"

More red spread across the mighty Uzumaki Lord's face, though from either embarrassment or rage was anyone's guess… likely both, as his purple eyes just twitched trying to comprehend the monstrosity in front of him… also realizing the woman likely wasn't wearing anything under that evilly open yukata… not that he was _looking!_

He quickly shook his head, mentally slapping himself as he hadn't done or thought so perversely since he was under 50, honestly! He was far too old to be acting like a kid. To save face he merely coughed into hand and avoided looking at the woman, "No, I am not here to… imbibe…"

A black brow rose on the woman's face in such a way he was actually wondering if she had no idea what 'imbibe' meant… which wouldn't make any sense since nearly every Kumo-nin he'd ever met seemed to have swallowed a dictionary as a child, there was no way this young girl could have made it to being a Company Commander and not done the same!

Finally she just shrugged, skillfully wrapping the loose rope handle and bringing the thing back to her lips, "Eh, more for me," and likely finished it off as the next thing Shishio knew the bottle went flying over the balcony.

A red brow quirked as his gaze returned from the missing bottle to the woman taking a rather… ill-mannered seat at one end of the table and literally mauling some manner of meat in front of her. He couldn't calling it 'eating', humans _ate_ things, this woman was viciously mauling what remained of some meat and he wasn't sure any of it was going in her stomach. She must have noticed him staring as she momentarily paused in her mauling of meats to quirk a black brow at him and say something with her mouth full that may have been, again, "want some?" and held out a bone in his direction.

That purple eye was twitching again as the man sat down, partly because he'd had it beaten into his head from his mother to sit when someone offered you food, and partly because like a training accident he just could not look away from the horror in front of him. His mother would have thrown a fit if this woman ever came to their home for dinner.

The black brow remained up for a good long second as the two just seemed to stare at one another, before Reki just shrugged, gnawing what meat she could get off the bone before tossing it over her shoulder. The Uzumaki dude was weird, just kept staring, she knew she was hot but this was a bit ridiculous.

"What the hell are you doing?" it seemed the old man finally found his voice.

The mauling stopped as wide black eyes just stared at the guy, glanced at her food, back at him, swallowed and cleared her throat before answering quite succinctly, "Eating?"

Those purple eyes narrowed, "If that's what you call that," he immediately quipped under his breath. When the Uzu leader realized what he'd just said he was mortified, the woman, as dumb as she appeared, may not recognize him but pissing off Kumo was never a good idea.

Luckily she just seemed to snort before busting out laughing, loudly banging her fist on the table.

Shishio could only blink.

"Oh man," the woman leaned back, holding her stomach as she tried to bring her laughing down, "I was wondering how long it'd take to get to you!"

Red brow rose as the man stared at her skeptically, "Until _what_ got to me?"

The woman managed to get her boisterous laughter down to a snicker as she pushed the plates away from her, "The bad manners and shit," a tan hand seemed to reach behind the opposite side of the table before she pulled back a white stick and cheap looking lighter. She grinned viciously as she placed the cigarette in her mouth, keeping sharp eyes on the man, "What, you thought that's how I normally eat?"

"To be honest," Shishio stated flatly as he folded his hands into his sleeves, watching as she lit the small cigarette, "I thought you were drunk…"

The black haired woman snickered, setting the cheap lighter down on the table between them, leaning enough on it to provide _ample_ support for her barely contained cleavage as she smirked to the older man, waving her free hand around, "Maybe just a little~"

The older man snorted, finding the scent of cigarette smoke offensive. The woman boldly drank, no, _chugged_ alcohol like a man, had no concept of tact, discretion, or personal self-image, horrendous table manners, terrible sense of humor… and worst of all smoked. Shishio could only stare… his mother would hate this woman.

A black brow rose as the woman removed the cigarette and just lightly breathed smoke. It rose higher as the man seemed to twitch more. He was kinda funny…

The man snorted, glaring mildly at the young _girl_, and ruing the day she moved on to thicker, deadlier cigarettes. He hoped he didn't know her by then… or she was dead, as their line of work was much more likely to provide, "I'm curious how much of the drunk whore act is true or fake…" screw being 'nice' to the Kumo Commander, she obviously wasn't being so towards him!

Unexpectedly the woman's black brow rose and she wasn't laughing, "I think Company S would find some offense in that," she replaced the cigarette and breathed what may have been a sigh, "They make sure standards are kept after all…"

Shishio just stared at her oddly, not sure what to make of the comment. She wasn't offended, in fact seemed to react like she wasn't 'worth' being called a whore… Kumo-nin were weird! "I'm…" red brow rose skeptically, "sorry?"

That cocky grin was back, "Ehehe, forget about it," she waved her hand, " 'Sides I know I'm not the most _dainty_ woman around," the hand with the cigarette reached out, nudging a ceramic plate over with some food remains, and snubbed out the death stick, "I knew a guy that would give you a run for your money," that grin widened as she leaned towards the man across from her, "probably clean you out too~"

Purple eyes narrowed, "You are drunk…"

"Not enough," the woman sat up on her knees and reached across the table, grabbing another sake bottle.

Shishio _tried_, kami strike him down, the man **_tried_** to ignore the young woman's chest as she leaned over the table in front of him… for not wearing any support, they were _quite_ firm and well in place.

In a deceptively graceful movement the woman sat back down and drained half the bottle before setting it back down on the table with a satisfied gasp the moment her bottom hit the floor. The woman was obliviously grinning as her face got a bit redder… much like her company, "Sure you don't want Uzumaki~"

The man just stared at her, trying to ignore the possible double meaning in her words and presentation.

The evil young woman just kept grinning, leaning to one side, obviously enjoying making him so flustered.

Purple eyes narrowed, "You are an evil woman…"

She winked, "How else do you think I got this job…"

Shishio had to close his eyes, take a deep breath and calm his thoughts. Either this woman was naturally aggravating or an excellent mental expert, either way she was not someone to underestimate like he had previously. Calming his thoughts, narrow purple eyes stared squarely at the deceptive woman, "Commander, please explain your presence here."

A black brow rose, part of her demeanor becoming serious but it was hard to tell with the obvious effect the booze was having on her, "Some R-'n-R," a nonchalant shrug as she took another swig from the sake bottle, "You guys got black op.s right?" the woman may have drunkenly leaned towards the older gentleman but there was something about her thin eyes, something dangerous and well-aware, "We just got done with a month long siege, don't ask where, and I figured my kids deserve a break," then she leaned back again, sighing deeply and drinking again, "Lord knows I fucking need it," the woman finally set the sake bottle down, long enough to roll her shoulder, messaging out an apparent kink before quirking a single eye at the Uzumaki, "Don't worry, we paid well enough for any damages…" those black eyes paused flat, "I think…"

Shishio growled, shaking his head. Kami knew what these black op.s types were doing, for all he knew they just wiped out a village or something. –_Trust Kumo to go about pillaging…_- and he still had that BS from the Raikage to deal with, seriously the guy wanting an agreement for-

… wait.

Narrow purple eyes turned on the woman, who was drinking again from what looked to be a different bottle, "So you have _nothing_ to do in this Village aside from staying at this bathhouse?"

A black brow rose though it was debatable if Reki was really listening to him, "Not that I know of," the woman hiccupped as her gaze seemed to be cloudy as she stared oddly at Shishio, "You know sumin' I don't?" then she started snickering as if something about the statement was infinitely hilarious.

Shishio didn't get it… and why was the woman staring at him! Out of purely nervous habit the older gentleman rubbed his small mustache, just to distract himself. He noticed the young woman seemed to lick her lips when he did that, curious, a red brow rose higher, "No, there's nothing I know that you do not, one would assume," she was smirking again, why did that make the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, "What?"

The woman grinned, wide enough to close her eyes, "Noooooothing~ hehe…"

Purple eyes narrowed as the man crossed his arms, "You keep staring, obviously there's something…"

It was strange watching as her wide grinning teeth got closer, the woman leaning over the table, almost in his lap and close enough he could smell the cigarette from earlier on her breath along with sake, "Wanna fuck?"

It took a good long second for Shishio's brain to reset after the question. –_She just asked that?_- his left eye twitched as all he could do was stare as she leaned in a bit closer, cleavage quite open and obvious, almost close enough to slip off the table and… Shishio shook his head, leaning back as the woman started laughing.

"What's the matter red?" Now Reki was deviously leaning on one arm on the table, intent quite obvious in her eyes and actions, "You've been staring all night, and fuck if you're not a good looking guy yourself," her free hand reached out to run under his chin but missed, both from her own drunkenness causing a lack of depth perception and the older man leaning back, not that it seemed to register to the Kumo Commander, "I hear you Uzumaki have crazy stamina, even the really old ones~"

Shishio stared flatly, lightly swatting her drunk hand away, "Not interested."

The woman pouted, anger quickly setting behind her drunk eyes, "And why the hell not?"

The Uzumaki leader pushed back, getting to his feet, feeling the sooner he left the quicker she'd forget and so would he… and he didn't know how long he could resist something so… welcomed, "You're drunk, it would be wrong…" yes, he was a good guy, he didn't take advantage of women!

The woman's frown got larger, as she turned to sit on the table, narrow black eyes watching as he moved to the door, "Bullshit like I'm that drunk," when he got near enough to grab the door the woman threw out the chain from her fan, wrapping it around his leg and tripping him, effortlessly dragging the Uzumaki lord to her feet.

Shishio growled, annoyed at the position and drunk he had to deal with. In a graceful motion the man hopped off the floor, spun in the opposite way the chain was wound removing it from himself and flipped to stand, conveniently scant inches from the woman sitting on the table at a decidedly poor level. Purple eyes narrowed as the red head looked down with his hands on his hips at the woman whose head was relatively waist level for him. Sadly he did not get the first word in this encounter.

A black brow rose with a devious smirk as the woman leaned back just enough to look the man in the eyes and show off her nice rack, "Oh that's how you want to play, huh?" that cocky grin was back with a vengenance as the woman reached out to grab his sash belt.

Swiftly the man grabbed the woman's hand before it made it anywhere near its destination, "I said it once, not interested."

Black eyes narrowed as the woman wrenched her hand from his, leaning back and looking away with an angry, frustrated pout.

Shishio just sighed at the look, crossing his arms into his sleeves and wanting to in some way diffuse the situation, "Don't take this as a slight, it is simply not my way," the woman made some disgruntled sound but remained looking away from him. The red head growled deep in his chest, annoyed and frustrated himself as he crossed his arms tighter, closing his eyes, "now if you do not mind, _Commander_, but I have other affairs to deal with," an even deeper sigh as the woman just seemed to continue to pout, "And please, don't do anything rash that would cause extensive damage to this establishment…"

"Tch," a tan hand reached out grabbing and uncorking another bottle, "Whatever Red," she made a shooing motion, obviously over the man's rejection.

Shishio just nodded, turning on his heel and left the room, hoping the Kumo Commander would simply drink herself into a stupor and leave in the morning.

Oh how wrong he was…

For not even twelve hours later Shishio and what remained of the Uzumaki were standing on a hill overlooking the complete and utter annihilation of their village at the hands of **_ONE_** individual while her ANBU squad had them all tied up for the show. The elder leader of what was formally Uzushiogakure's left eye twitched at every unbridled scream of fury he heard while watching his village be blow to pieces by a woman with fans and breathing literal fire. Buildings were blown away with a wave of Reki's fans as others burned from her fire breath and gods forbid where the woman was pulling all the rampant explosions out of…

After about two hours of silently being forced to watch the destruction of one of the strongest villages in the world at the hands of one psycho with fans someone tapped Shishio on the shoulder. The obviously-in-shock man turned to face whoever it was that was interrupting his horror, with twitching eyes, and spotted the young girl in white from the Kumo division. She had a very placid look on her face as she stared down at the man with still grey eyes before stating quite bluntly:

"The Commander told me to tell you, 'This is what happens when you turn down the Commander of Company 1'…"

Shishio just blinked, his eye twitching as he turned back and continued watching the woman wreak havoc on his town. All that was running through the Uzumaki's mind were thoughts of vengeance and how much he hated the insolent child blowing his home to bits. But there was one part of his mind, one that was strangely calm and cynical about the whole situation that he was avidly trying to ignore, stating quite plainly:

–_Why didn't I just get laid!_-

* * *

Shishio - lion, Uzumaki Shishio - Swirling Lion

Uzushiogakure no Sato - village hidden in the whirlpools

* * *

**A/N:** why write this? because it was funny... why post it? because it was funny...

and yes, working on next chappy for WYCH, its being difficult... so thought this would be fun to throw up since its basically crack, and i always write crack when i'm stressed...

lets see if i can get a review this time! :D

Till next -salute-waves- Sayounara, Mina!

-Ikasury


	3. Why Uzushiogakure REALLY Burned

**A/N:** so i just updated WYCH, and for some reason bust this out... meh~ not that i'm complaining :3 for some reason this 'area' of Kumo history amuses me and i guess i just want to get it out, as its another one of those things that is VERY important to several characters pre-WYCH but again, not something i could really ever put in that without having some silly flashback scene or what not... i'm sure i've made references but yea, here's a more detailed version :3

Canon(-ish, most likely) - 20ish years before WYCH - the serious version of what happened with Uzushiogakure and the reason there 'are' Uzumaki descendants in Kumo but more importantly why none of them bare anything that marks them 'obviously' as Uzumaki :3

like with all things i write, take it with a grain of salt, as no narrators are reliable ones ;3

ENJOY!

* * *

Why Uzushiogakure REALLY Burned…

In the history of the Shinobi world there are many incidents that occur with little to no reason often with disastrous or cataclysmic results; few actually end up being relatively good. Many of these events are shrouded in mystery likely because any information of the incident has been lost, manipulated, or simply forgotten. Worst is when records of these events are all inconclusive and all accounts are conflicting because then that means someone is lying and as history is written by the victories the truth is buried to never be found again, only the lies remaining… even if those involved live long enough and remember those moments clearly.

The destruction of Uzushiogakure no Sato, the Village Hidden in the Whirlpools is one of these events.

All countries and villages will agree that Kumogakure no Sato, the Village Hidden in the Clouds is responsible for razing this minor village to the ground, burning the city and sinking the land below the waves it hid behind. This part is true, Kumo **_did_** burn Uzu to the ground and not a single Kumo-nin will deny it. What no one knows is who did it or why…

… and to answer those questions there are only a few people to ask, and even then, they may not be telling the truth.

* * *

Uzumaki Shishio didn't know it yet, but he would be the last leader Uzushiogakure ever had.

His grandfather had build the village nearly 200 years ago, his mother had grown up here before she left after his own father's demise, along with every other Uzumaki known to the world. Whirlpool was their home, their land, the place all children of the spiral traced their origins. They were the masters of Fuuinjutsu, Seal Arts, its inventors and keepers of their secrets as well as an inspiration for all the other villages that existed today. While Uzu remained relatively small and classified as a 'minor' village, it held its own and the power of the seals is main family possessed. For generations, by other Shinobi standards, they had been the prize all major and minor villages sought because their power was something so foreign and unknown.

For generations, the Uzumaki had held onto their small patch of land by their arts, dealing with the other villages only when needed.

Now though, now was a different time…

Today was the last day Uzushiogakure would exist.

… and Uzumaki Shishio would be there to watch it all burn.

* * *

Thin purple eyes opened as the Konoha representative slammed his fist on the low table seated between them. There were only three occupants in the room, Shishio as the Uzu representative, an ANBU from Konoha in a plain mask and an ANBU from Kumo wearing a black intricately carved black mask designed like an Oni's face across from the Konoha representative. Shishio sat at the head of the small low table _trying_ to keep the peace, not that it was working, Kumo and Konoha had fought since their foundings, even long before when they had been warring clans and bandits.

From what Shishio knew; Kumo was a Village constantly looked down upon as they came up out of nowhere from the mountains of the Land of Lightning. He'd yet to meet a Kumo-nin from some 'prestigious' or well-known clan, and from the hearsay of the other villages the location of their Village was the suspected home of a roaming band of bandits that had pillaged and rampaged all across the elemental nations. They were ruthless, lawless, inscrutable barbarians that now sought to be called 'Shinobi'… it was no wonder many of the other 'Villages' despised them.

On the other side was 'Konoha', claimed as the 'First' true Shinobi Village, even if the rumors of Kumo's origins would actually make the 'bandit village' predate any of the other so-called 'hidden villages'. But Konoha was prideful and powerful, claiming the names of many notorious clans, even gaining a truce somehow between the blood-feuding Uchiha and Senjuu. The day the Hyuuga left the Land of Lightning and joined Konoha was the day the seemingly never-ending war between the two villages started, as any excuse between the bandits and 'prestigious' Shinobi was reason enough to set the countryside on fire and shed each other's blood.

The Uzumaki had the built their own village long ago in secret, his mother in fact was the one to help that moron Senjuu build their Village Hidden in the Leaves and it was unknown to what extent she had revealed Uzumaki secrets. He doubted his mother revealed anything, the Senjuu she'd fallen in love with was an idiot, Shishio had met him once and that was all he'd needed to know the man that had been his own age at the time… it was a very disturbing time in his life and may have colored his views of Konoha to this day. His mother had remained in that damn village, even to her death barely a month ago and that was _part _of the whole reason they were having this meeting to begin with.

In his life Uzumaki Shishio had been blessed with three wives, each giving him several children though sadly dying not long after the last. Ten years ago his last wife died birthing a beautiful girl that looked like him. With that strong Uzumaki red hair and violet eyes she had been a handful and a troublemaker and the absolute light of his life. She had been his baby, all his other children grown adults with their own families and she was the last he had to take care of…

He had _allowed_ his precious daughter to travel to Konoha to see his dying mother, as he could not since he was running the village. He had _allowed_ his mother to get her damn way of upholding that moron Senjuu's wishes to keep the Kyuubi locked away until it 'saw the light' or whatever the hell that was and _specifically_ letting his _youngest_ and most beloved daughter to go and retrieve the stupid bijuu before his mother perished. What he had **_not_** _allowed_ was for Konoha to now claim the girl as their property, for 'her safety'. The power hungry morons had no damn idea how to deal with the bijuu, the Uzumaki did, _his __**mother**_ had been the one to show that moron Senjuu how to seal the damn thing because **_someone_** had to as she was the **_only ONE_** that could hold the damn thing! He had let his daughter see her grandmother, let her receive a burden for his damn mother because he was a good son, but he drew the damn line there! He wanted his daughter back, and Konoha was not cooperating…

That's where Kumo came in…

Uncouth bandits or not, the barbarians were excellent muscle and **_HATED_** Konoha with a passion… the Raikage had laughed at his request saying they'd take the opportunity to make the 'pussy tree-huggers' look like morons for free. He had only wanted the Kumo presence there as a threat, a reminder that Uzu, while minor, was still highly valued, and if Konoha was going to slight him he'd plunge this world into another bloody war, one where the seals of Uzu backed the ruthless horde of Kumo.

His mere _talking_ to Kumo had been enough to ruffle Konoha, they impromptly sending an emissary, and ANBU operative no less, to 'negotiate'. Shishio had been fortunate as an ANBU force of Kumo's had been in the area, sent by the Raikage to give Shishio his response to a form of treaty between the two villages that would likely satisfy them both. He'd yet to see the treaty as the Konoha ANBU had ambushed him, then the Kumo one, and the only way to prevent a war, for now, was to sit the two of them down in the back room of his office.

The past six hours had consisted of the two ANBU quietly staring at each other behind their masks… it had been a _very __**quiet**_ six hours.

That had been until the Konoha ANBU had slammed his fist on the table.

"Remove your mask, Kumo," a black glove pointed accusingly at the black Oni mask, "Or these talks are over…"

Purple eyes couldn't help but roll. –_Talks… right…_- Shishio kept the snort in his mouth, knowing this was just going to bring about another argument as ANBU, especially high ranking black ops never revealed their faces.

For a solid five minutes the Kumo ANBU didn't move; arms crossed, back straight, and mask facing the Konoha's plain one. Then as if some act of Kami they shrugged, the slight motion amplified by just how _still_ they had been before an equally black gloved hand rose, clutching the eyeholes of the Oni mask and expertly removing it.

Despite himself Shishio had to take a deep breath. The removal of one's mask was a death sentence for ANBU and this Kumo-nin seemed to be inviting it. His breath hitched when with the mask the person removed some band that had been holding their hair, revealing long straight black locks and a woman's tan face.

With her free hand she ran her fingers through her hair, obviously taking some small pleasure in having removed the band before cracking her neck and opening thin black eyes to stare at the Konoha ANBU.

For the moment Shishio was mesmerized and not sure why.

Then she opened her mouth and he forgot all about it…

"Happy, fucker?" she flippantly tossed the black mask on the table, flat black eyes never leaving the small dots for eye holes the Konoha ANBU had, "Now if you wouldn't mind…?"

The Konoha ANBU was still but even the untrained eye could see something jarred about their stiff sitting position, "No," it was said in a low flat voice, "A true ANBU never reveals their face, Gakushin Reki."

The woman made a motion to twirl her finger by her ear, "Woo, you know who I am…"

"You are the current Commander of Kumo's Company 1, their black ops assault squad, even if you are truly a member of Company 0, their Torture and Interrogation squad." The assumed man's voice was low and flat, stating facts with no emotion, it was almost commendable.

The woman lowered her hand, flat black eyes still not leaving the ANBU, "Is that supposed to intimidate me?" a thin black brow rose slighting on her tan face, "Because its not, you see this?" one hand raised to pick at the opening of the long black trench coat she wore over her standard issue black ops gear, "This is only worn by T&I captains so its easy to figure I was one, as for my name?" she held out both hands palms up in a shrugging nonchalant motion, "Pfft, who doesn't know I'm the Company 1 Commander by now?" a wicked smirk passed her features as she glanced at the man across from her, "You tend to get famous when your Legendary Sannin get run out of our territory by little ol' me and my kids…"

The ANBU didn't move much but it was safe to assume he was ruffled.

Meanwhile purple eyes stared. The woman was young, likely in her early twenties by other Shinobi standards, and she'd faced the Konoha Legendary Sannin and lived? Despite the desire to remain neutral and have nothing to do with Konoha, Shishio had kept some tabs on those related to his mother; Senjuu Tsunade had been interesting as his mother's granddaughter with her miraculous medial Ninjutsu and being a part of a Legendary team to practically win a war with Kiri on their own. It had been nearly a decade since the team under the third Hokage had gained their infamy and they'd seemed unstoppable since. So to hear this…

"There is no proof of such an occurrence," was the Konoha ANBU's automatic response.

Something wicked passed the woman's face as her smirk became vicious, "Oh just ask them, I'm _suuuuure_ little Jiraiya will _love_ to go on about how he got thrashed by a woman with fans in all black back in the southern mountains where they'd been _trying_ to sneak in despite it being _peace time_ between our two villages," she finally looked away from the man, removing one of her gloves and looking at her nails while she talked, her body language screaming she deemed him of little to no importance.

But the threat in her words struck a chord with Shishio.

Purple eyes burned as the man's graying red brows furrowed and turned to the Konoha ANBU, "What is your village doing trying to instigate another war with Kumo!" in ever skirmish between the two villages Uzu got pulled in, and it was _always_ Uzu that had to bleed the most to broker a truce between them.

"There is no such thing," was that automatic response, "As such an event never happened; this Kumo-nin is merely lying to try to gain your favor…"

A frown spread under the thin red mustache as Shishio had to bite his tongue from commenting.

That certainly didn't stop the Kumo woman, "Yea, cause you guys are _sooooooo_ trustworthy," she had the other glove off, rubbing her fingers and eyes never leaving her nails, "Who was it that started the last 3 wars?"

"There have only been 2 major wars between our villages," was the man's automatic response.

The woman's wicked grin grew, "_Riiiiight, _because officially anything you lose isn't counted as a _real_ war?" those thin black eyes rose a moment to sneer at the man, "And for the record there's been 5 wars between us, officially, just since I've graduated, with countless skirmishes, just so you know."

The Konoha ANBU was silent; no comment to be made as if the man was denying the woman had even said a word.

Against his better judgment Shishio couldn't help but glare at the Konoha ANBU. He knew Shinobi were shady at best but to utterly deny things out of hand was idiotic. Not that he could say anything, he hated to admit it but the woman was right, from what he'd known dealing with Konoha consisted of pride and posturing so thick that if they didn't win or things didn't go their way it didn't happen. What his mother saw in that Senjuu moron must have been extravagant because no one else in his village seemed to be worth all the sacrifices she'd made.

The Kumo woman cracked her knuckles loudly, finally looking at the Konoha ANBU, "Now, lets do something I know you're not very good at and cut all this posturing bullshit," her thin black eyes narrowed as her face became frighteningly serious, "You're here to stop me from giving this guy the terms for their alliance with us, and should that fail you go into clean up mode, right?"

The Konoha ANBU was perfectly still.

"Clean up?" Shishio faced the woman seriously, "What do you mean Kumo?"

Her eyes never left the man across from her even if she was addressing the Uzu leader, "Clean up means simply that if he fails to stop me from speaking to you he's to kill you and blame it on me, cuing another war between Kumo and Konoha where Konoha will _conveniently_ come to Uzu's aid," her eyes narrowed even sharper, "Where they will likely claim the territory, out of Uzu's 'gratitude' for them coming to their aid and gaining their vengeance where they will basically have free reign of your entire village and its resources."

Killing intent filled the room as purple daggers pointed at the Konoha ANBU, "What the hell does your viallge think its doing!"

"That's quite a story, Kumo," the Konoha ANBU's flat voice filled the air, completely ignoring the man raging, "I wonder where you came up with such a fantastic tale…"

Reki merely shrugged, "It was our backup plan too," she pulled something out of the top pocket on her vest under her jacket, a slim cigarette that she quickly placed in her lips and lit with a cheap lighter, "Though we have better use for this idiot while you guys don't like him because he sure as hell doesn't like you…" despite the confession incriminating her the woman grinned wide around her cigarette.

Shishio now stared at the woman. how could someone be so flippantly honest and be an ANBU Commander for Kumo, and worse how could just so bluntly state she'd planned to kill or possibly worse to him should her mission fail, _right in front of him!_

She took a long drag, breathing out smoke slowly, "So, Konoha, now that all plans are revealed," thin black eyes smirked at the mask across from her, "That leaves only one thing left to do…"

For the longest second the two ANBU stared at one another…

Then several things happened at once.

The Konoha ANBU disappeared, reappearing for a moment to stab Shishio in the neck…

Only to freeze as suddenly his head fell off its shoulders…

And Reki extinguished her cigarette in an ash tray that appeared on the table in front of her.

Shishio could only stare. He was a hundred years old and an experienced Shinobi and he had barely registered a thing. He'd managed to stand, pulling a hook from his belt as a defence as his hand moved to activate a seal… only to see the man's head fall off…

Frantically purple eyes traveled to the black haired woman still sitting down as she put out her cigarette in an ash tray he didn't remember being there.

That's when he noticed the fourth presence in the room, or really _saw_ her as he didn't feel a single thing from the small white haired girl now standing at the ANBU's side. She had pale skin, short white hair on top with a thin braid he saw as she bent to pick up the ash tray, an all white plain outfit better fit for a prisoner and grey eyes that were sharp but didn't seem to see anything.

"Whelp," Reki stood up, dusting off her jacket and not making any motion to the kid, "Guess that's how they want to play this…" putting her hand in the high collared jacket's pockets she looked down at the girl, "Have the shocktroops remain here, we will hunt down what remnants they have nearby, understood?"

The girl gave a curt nod, "As you wish Commander. A question?"

The woman had leaned down, grabbing her mask and replacing it, ignoring her hair, as she moved to push open the doors to Shishio's back room, revealing several ANBU in Kumo motif'd masks and several oddballs in all white like the little girl, "Sure, ask."

Again the girl nodded behind the woman, "We go where there is the most danger, we should be the ones hunting…"

"No," the woman's voice was harsh coming through the mask, blank, unfeeling, but harsh, "This is the most dangerous place to be, you will remain here and protect our assets, understood."

"Yes," the girl gave a low bow submitting obviously to the woman in the black Oni mask's authority.

The black Oni mask faced the crowd of gathered ANBU, "Spread out, we have vipers to catch."

The entire crowd gave a single firm nod before disappearing. The ones in white remaining.

"You," the ANBU Commander pointed at the group of fifteen in front of her, not one wearing a mask but none looking wholly there in their uniform white prison-like outfits, "Stay." She pointed at the ground like a command someone would give a dog before walking forward, the girl in white and the others remaining.

"Kumo Commander!" Shishio yelled across the room before the woman could Shunshin away.

The grinning black Oni mask turned to him, its face much more intimidating then the one he'd seen behind it. After a moment she reached into her jacket, pulling out a scroll, and tossing it at the man, it landing on the table mere inches from him.

For a moment the red head stared at the contract, the woman in black, and back.

"It seems you have no choice but to accept our terms, Uzumaki," a re-gloved hand pointed at the headless body of the Konoha ANBU, "Its likely he had either a bug or transmission seal on him, meaning there's a team nearby that heard everything." The masked woman's hands went to her into her pockets, "Likely one of them ran to the army hiding a few hours away, informing them of your 'decision' and that it's their chance to activate their backup plan: kill you and any dissenters and claim this place and its power for their own."

Pale hands became fists at the man's sides as he felt his entire world crumbling. First his mother, then his daughter, now this… purple eyes burned as he glared at the woman's wicked mask, "And how do you know this?"

From her stand he could tell she was staring at him flatly, "Because its what we would do…" she pointed again at the scroll, "You can stay here and let them wipe you all out except for those foolish enough to join them or you can take our offer now and stop them from stealing any more of your family's power."

His fist were nearly bleeding. One side meant annihilation, the other meant a deal with the devil. Grinding his teeth he glared at the woman, all of this seeming so convenient, "And what are your 'terms'…" he nearly spit the word, knowing they couldn't been good for his people.

"Simple," she held up one hand, "You join us," at the man's confused look she extrapolated, "I don't mean Uzu becomes our allies, I mean your clan, what survives here, joins us, forsaking this place, your name, every tie that makes you recognizable as Uzumaki and become a part of Kumo."

Purple eyes widened as Shishio stared at the woman, surprised at first before rage took over, "And why the hell would we do that?!"

"Because you care more about your family's lives then a name," the woman crossed her arms, "Konoha is going to come in here and wipe your people out anyway, Uzumaki are quite stubborn, we like that, and would rather keep that energy with us then destroy everything."

"You just want the secrets of this village for yourselves!" the old man spat, "You just want to pillage this place once we're gone just like them!"

For the longest moment the woman was still and the red haired man wished he could see the woman's face. The only thing he saw was her hand closest to him tighten the slightest around her crossed arms, "We will destroy this village, whether you join us or not…" that hand tightened the slightest more, "Burn it to the ground so those pussy tree-huggers don't get a single scrap, because unlike them I'm willing to tell you to your face I will kidnap whoever I have to to get what I want," her hand finally released and if the man wasn't hearing wrong he could hear the evil smirk in the woman's voice next, "Because I am a member of Company 0 and well versed in getting what I want out of someone…" she walked closer to him as she spoke until her mask was looking up at him mere inches away, "So either swallow your pride and come willingly or you're going to become my new plaything." The black Oni mask tilted slightly, "Understood?"

Shishio just stared, rage filling his eyes and knowing he was beat. He was the leader of his Village, he had been on the frontlines in many wars and seen what both sides could do… the horrors the people from the mountains and forests could enact on others… there was only one choice he had to spare his people _some_ of that agony.

Tears welled up in the man's eyes as he dropped to the ground on his knees. Uzu was lost…

"Good," the demon's voice was curt as he felt her turn around, addressing her 'shocktroops', "Gather his supporters, protect them, kill any invaders or those that resist and leave in 20 minutes, any left and they burn with the village."

There was no verbal response but the emptiness was enough to know the mutes had agreed.

For several long minutes Shishio remained on the ground, feeling as chakra signatures flared around the village, battles erupting as his own people either resisted or some advanced forces fought back. He could feel so many people dying around him so quickly it was maddening.

Three signatures entered his back room and he only had the moment to look up, seeing the plain ANBU masks with the Konoha emblem before a flash and their heads left their bodies and the white girl was standing in front of him, offering her hand.

Shishio couldn't think, taking the girl's hand on reflex as he looked around, realizing he had been out of it longer then he thought as they were all gone and several new bodies littered his office, at least two wearing Uzu hitae-ate.

The little girl seemed to tilt her head, reading him, "They refused to come."

Purple eyes turned to the girl, her placid face with not an ounce of remorse or emotion. She didn't have a hitae-ate but obviously bowed to the ANBU Commander's authority, "Why…?" he didn't know why he asked or what he was asking, but he got an answer none the less.

"It was ordered," she said crisply, offering her hand again, "Now we must leave, the deadline is almost up."

"The deadline?" that's when it hit Shishio, she was here to make sure he left, as agreed. That evil woman had only given them 20 minutes, there was no way to evacuate his entire village in 20 minutes! "No, no!" he grabbed the girl around the shoulders, "We need more time, my people, they-?"

"Will die." Again the girl was disturbingly blunt as she grabbed his hand and pulled with surprising strength out the door, "The Commander ordered it, so it shall be, and you are a special case as the leader and one that agreed, you have no choice."

Shishio tried to pull his hand out of the little girl's grip but it was like steel, nothing he did seemed to budge her fingers and he did not want to resort to anything lethal, she was just a girl after all, "Let me go, I can walk on my own!"

"I have to make sure you see it," she said monotonously, idly throwing out a wired knife and skewering a Konoha ANBU between the eyes.

That's when Shishio looked around them. There were already bodies, Konoha ANBU in those plain masks as well as several of his own people. Already there was the smell of fire and explosions in the distance, someone was fighting full force, trying to escape or steal from them was anyone's guess.

That was also when Shishio noticed something else, there were very few civilian corpses and no children.

As if reading his mind the girl spoke not looking back, "We want as many as possible, we noticed many with children come more willingly and that suits us fine, we're not interested in wiping them out."

The man growled, purple eyes glaring at the girl's head, "Children are easier to manipulate…"

"Children are foolish," was her clipped response.

The man frowned, wondering if this was the future of his people, this emotionless child, "You're just a child."

"I am a weapon, nothing more," was her quick response.

Purple eyes widened as the man tried to get the girl to stop, to explain, but she was adamant in her movements, nothing deterring her nor her hold on him, "You're a child, you shouldn't be here-" there was another explosion and suddenly she was thrown to the ground. Once he gained his bearings and the ringing stopped he rolled over and saw the girl standing in front of him, shrapnel covering her front as she flicked her blade, a decapitated body not far behind.

Again she offered her hand, "We must proceed quickly."

Having nothing better to do then stare Shishio took her hand, was quickly tugged to his feet, and nearly dragged towards his village's nearest exit. He couldn't help but stare at the girl, there were cuts in her white uniform and it was only now he could see patches of blood. She'd risked her life for him, more then once and even more as they made their way to the village gate.

As they passed the gate, along with several other Uzumaki fleeing he looked down at their hands, noticing the girl's sleeves had run up some from her and saw several light scars that nearl blended with her pale skin. They were too meticulous to be random, with suture marks on most of them and he could only wonder what kind of life this poor girl had gone through to be here now, saving his life.

By the time they made it to a cliff overseeing the village he heard the first explosions, the first sounds of his village going up in flames. The small girl allowed him a moment to look back, watch as the black Oni lit the fires herself while fending off other ANBU.

Shishio's heart sunk, his family's work, everything they had done for generations… in flames…

"We are nearly to the rendezvous," the girl tugged on his hand again, pulling before he even fully turned.

They made it to the spot quickly; only a few of the white wearing people remained, crowding nearly a hundred of his people, mostly civilians, women and children and several unconscious shinobi.

The girl passed the crowd watching their village burn without any emotion, moving to one of the others in white; it was a tall bulky make that looked to have been covered in burns with spikes coming out of his shoulders.

"Casualties?" was her quick question.

The hulking monster seemed to just growl before holding up a clawed hand with his pinky, ring and middle fingers extended. The girl nodded before he pointed to one of theirs that was crouched nearby, obviously panting with his hands on his head. This was the first moment the girl let go of Shishio's hand, moving towards the man frothing as he growled on the ground, all Shishio could see was he was of a small stature with shaggy platinum blonde hair that covered his face. The former leader of Uzu merely assumed it was man, as he watched the girl grab his head and seem to look into his eyes for a moment before he went limp and passed out on the ground.

She turned around, not an emotion on her face as she idly grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the crowd, cutting through them and pointing out as his village burned, "The Commander will demolish everything then have the Company bury the land under water once we leave…"

Shishio's shoulders slumped as he stared, watching as his home burned, what people had still been in the village slaughtered by both Konoha and Kumo ANBU and the legacy of the Uzumaki destroyed. His purple eyes zeroed on the black Oni, watching as she cut his people and enemies alike, could practically hear the pleasure she was gaining from the slaughter and rampant destruction.

He hated the woman. He would hate her till the day he died.

Because she destroyed his home, scattered his people and worst of all… she was right…

This was the only chance his people had.

Purple eyes moved from the wonton destruction and looked at the girl still holding his hand, passive and unfeeling, "What's your name?"

For a long time she didn't respond, "I was assigned Subject Number XS376," for the first time it seemed she fidgeted as Shishio's eyes widened, "But if that does not suit your needs, I was named Kemui."

"Kemui… -chan," a great sadness passed over Shishio's face as he looked at the girl, stripped of all emotion and called herself solely a weapon, before turning back to the destruction of his home, "Thank you…" out of his periphery he could see her turn her head towards him, "For saving my life…"

For a long moment the girl's grey eyes stared at him as if she did not understand his words, but that didn't matter. For Uzumaki Shishio stared at the destruction of his home, a burning rage filling in the void left by the sorrow as he watched. He'd lost his home, his people, but that wouldn't stop him… he had two goals left in him now…

Save his daughter… and kill that woman.

And he had a feeling the Raikage wouldn't mind either.

* * *

Uzumaki Shishio - Lion of Whirlpool!

Gakushin Reki - Learn by being Run over

Kemui - Smokey

* * *

**A/N:** don't think anyone else was named, though there are references to other characters :D

Thank you my reviewers, i love them, and glad you guys liked at least the first chap, yea i know these other two are kinda 'off' but hey, this is a drabble for me to be crazy, 2 and 3 being great contrast, 2: the silly version, 3: the serious version, and which is true?! you'll never truly know! :D (okay the whole canon/non-canon might be a tip, but meh~)

i love dropping hints to future things by the way, just saying~

Comments, Questions, gimme reviews! :D

Till next -salute-waves- Sayounara, Mina!

-Ikasury


	4. Reki has a Talk

**A/N:** originally i was going to wait awhile to post this... like after i'd put something up that DIDN'T involve Reki and her HATE-love relationship with Uzushio... sadly people want it up to read it as its easier then doing PM... and who am i kidding, this is the kind of thing i made this thing for XD

Non-canon (for now) - approximately 4-5 years from Yorihi graduating, Xiao is 17... this came about because SOMEONE (who shall remain nameless) made a comment about how much Uzushio and Reki must secretly love each other because how much they show they HATE each other... and the Ship was born... didn't leave me alone so i had to suffer through some graphic things involving creative uses of Kagebushin and the Sharingan and ended up writing this... as its much 'safer' then all that lemony goodness... still traumatizing, but 'safer'... now i have OTHER PEOPLE telling me to post it... so here you go, happy? -.-

ENJOY!

* * *

Xiao rolled out from behind her desk in her rolly-chair, sliding across the smooth sterile floor in what was effectively her exam room as she was the doctor that primarily used it. Her red eyes skimmed over the file in her hand as she read the data again for the fourth time, stopping her chair so that she was sitting directly in front of her patient who was sitting with her head in her hands on the exam table.

It was quiet for a second as Xiao skimmed the papers again, blinked and sighed, flipping the damn thing closed and sinking into her chair, "I dunno what to tell you Reki-san," those red eyes opened lazily as the woman's shoulders visibly slumped, "But according to all these tests… you're pregnant."

Silence.

Then there was a groan as the older desk clerk pushed her hands on her face and made some kind of muffled yell, causing Xaio to squeak and jump in her seat, before lowering her hands and staring into the air above the dusky-pinkette with flat black eyes, "How the fuck am I pregnant?" those bored looking eyes lowered to the medic, "Aren't I too old?"

"Technically, no," one of the girl's slim eyebrows quirked up, "Depending on linage determines relative average lifespan which will determine 'how long' a woman has to be viable for pregnancy," those bored thin black eyes told the young doctor the words went right over the desk clerks head. Xiao sighed, "Ugh, fine," she sat back in her rolly-chair in a huff, red eyes borrowing into her patient, "Do you still get your period?"

"Uh… yea," a black brow went up, not that the older woman seemed all that concerned, "I know I haven't hit menopause yet…"

Xiao's eyes were suddenly flatter than the older woman's, "well there you go, you are still capable of getting pregnant…"

Another pitiful groan from the retired ANBU as she rather pathetically slumped, head again firmly in her hands, "I knew there was a reason I didn't feel like smoking…"

Absently the medic nodded; flipping open the woman's file again noting the strained marking from the previous doctor about this particular woman NOT smoking, "Everyone's a bit worried when you suddenly stop smoking…"

"It's not that bad," was Reki's immediate and rather pitiful come back, even she knew that was a boldfaced lie.

Red eyes just stared flatly, determining the comment wasn't worth justifying with a response beyond that. When the older woman slumped pitifully again those red eyes went back to the file, "I take it you didn't smoke during your previous pregnancies?"

Black eyes rolled, "I never smoke around my kids…"

A dusk-pink brow rose as Xiao glanced at the woman over the papers, "You smoke around Yorihi?"

Flat black eyes were her response, "She's not my kid," there may or may not have been an indignant snort.

Xiao couldn't help the smirk that tugged at her lips, both the young Oni and the desk clerk had extreme ways of looking at the world and how they classified people. If Xiao didn't know better she'd say the two truly were blood related, "So any idea on who the father is?"

Another indignant snort, "You make it sound like I'm sleeping around every night?" the two just flatly stared at one another for a good long minute, mirroring flat bored looks that spoke volumes of potential accusations. Then Reki pulled up one knee and propped her chin on it, "Do you honestly think I'm like that?"

The dusky-pinkette gave a flippant shrug, "Do you know how many konoichi I get in here that are 'suddenly' pregnant with no idea who the father is?" her eyes were that same bored flat while her hands came up in appropriate air quotes before flatly looking at the older woman, "It's not me being judgmental, it's just become standard practice to ask…" then she turned fully toward Reki and a bit more of a serious tone entered her voice, "With this being a later pregnancy there's higher risk for all kinds of complication, the more I know about the kid's genetic makeup the more I have to work with and prepare for, such as potential risks to both you and the child."

Black eyes just blinked at the young medic.

This time Xiao snorted, "You, of all people, should understand the importance of a kid's history right?" there was something sharp and knowing about the dusky-pinkette's eyes that made Reki narrow her own suspiciously, "After all you've already had two kids… were there any complications there?"

Black eyes rolled, "No, they were both healthy and relatively easy…"

"Good," the younger woman snapped the folder shut, "Then you should be aware that the chances of this pregnancy being about a million times more difficult is high, primarily due to your age…" the older woman snorted, "Now if there's anything else you'd like to tell me, especially about the father," red eyes bored into the older woman's black ones, "then I can start figuring out the best way to deal with this and what to expect…"

Reki had that scowling pout on her face as she narrowly glared at Xiao, but she knew better then to mess with a medical-nin, next to torture-experts like herself and the whackos at R&D, the med-nins were probably some of the scariest motherfuckers around. They were well trained, smart, and could be downright creative with their revenge; you did not piss them off. Therefore, sighing in utter defeat, the former commander of Company 1 growled under her breath…

"I can't hear you Taichou," Xiao's own red eyes were narrowed as the woman glared more at her.

"You're too fucking young to be calling me that brat," the desk clerk felt extremely ruffled as the young medic gave her a grin she was sure she used all the time on her superiors as a way of saying 'I don't fucking care!' so with a snort she reiterated what she'd said, "The kid's father is Uzushio…"

The folder fell to the ground…

Red eyes blinked, then blinked again, and another time just to make sure. She'd heard that right; the older woman was giving that pouting scowl and nearly growling as she looked embarrassed as all hell, and for Reki that meant she was telling the truth. Xiao blinked again, "Wha…?"

"Close your mouth before you start catching flies brat…" another indignant grunt.

Another blink, "I'm sorry, I'm just trying to comprehend," blink again as those wide red eyes just stared at Reki, "I just heard you say… the father of this child is… is…" absently a hand was pointing at the older woman, "That pink-haired old guy Yorihi calls 'Jiji'… that you fucking HATE…" she blinked again, "Am I hearing this right?"

Reki visibly shook with the growl as she put her leg down and glared down at the little girl, narrow black eyes to the kid's wide disbelieving red ones, "Yes, I slept with Uzu-teme that fucking bastard, do I have to spell it out to you? Pull out some diagrams and give explicit details about his-"

"Okay! Okay! Okay!" Xiao accented each word by waving her hands, hoping her face wasn't the color of her hair, or worse, her eyes, "I get it, you slept with the guy!"

The dragon snorted, and Xiao knew if the woman were smoking she'd likely be breathing fire along with it.

The young doctor slumped into her chair, eyes still somewhat wide, "Well, I'll be damned; Yorihi was telling the truth…"

A black brow rose, obviously asking what the hell the girl was talking about.

The blush on Xiao's face deepened but she knew there was no way out of the bloody captain's sights now, "Err…" she gulped, "Like two weeks ago Yorihi showed up here, jittery and holding her face, at first I'd thought she'd broken her nose…" absently she scratched the side of her face nervously, "But then she pushed me in here and started telling me this long tale about how you were missing, then Kushi's granddad was missing also and the both of them went off to go find you guys since you're both punctual and well to be honest we thought one of you had finally snapped and decided to kill the other one…" red eyes innocently glanced to the side, the passive bored eyes on the older woman had become somewhat disturbing. Xiao swallowed hard, feeling sweat down the back of her neck, "S-so she continued, said they'd 'found' you at what was apparently Uzushio's place only… err… well…" her voice got higher pitched and the red spread on her face as her eyes caught the sharpening look on Reki's face. Immediately the young medic flushed and she was waving her hands in front of her defensively, "She got all quiet and defensive and started turning red until she finally just passed out… but I kinda got what she 'meant'… sorta…"

Reki looked bored, "Oh yea, the two of them walked in on us while we were on Uzu-teme's floor," she ran a finger along her chin nonchalant, "It was kinda funny actually, both her and him just standing there staring dumbfounded while we were completely naked in front of the door," there may have been a strangled squeak from the young doctor before Reki waved nonchalant, "then they ran out and stuck around the door," she scratched her head as if thinking, "I think they were expecting us to be done pretty quick," the perverted self-satisfied snicker did not help anyone listening.

Xiao turned even redder, having to cough into her hand just to find some semblance of reality, "O-okay… too much information…" she closed her eyes and coughed again, composing herself like the medical professional she was, "So I take it neither of you thought about using protection?"

"Well we did start off with all our under-armor on but that got thrown off by about round four and-" the cheeky way the older woman was grinning made it hard to tell if she was being honest, but obviously not at all serious.

A twitched formed on the dusky-pinkette's brow, "Not. That. Kind. Of . Protection." It was surprising how many times she'd heard that joke… it wasn't funny anymore. Red eyes snapped open and glared at the older woman, "So neither of you bothered to prevent this pregnancy?"

Finally Reki looked the slightest bit embarrassed as she scratched the side of her cheek, "Well, no… it was kinda sudden, I think I was drunk when it started?"

Red eyes blinked, "You think?"

Reki's hand's went up flippantly, "Well it lasted a few days alright, those Uzumaki's got a fuckton of stamina!"

Xiao's eye was back to twitching.

Unfortunately the older woman just continued, "Not to mention he had like no recharge period, he got off and would be ready to go in a second!" the woman snapped her finger before a nostalgic smirk came over her face, "I tell ya, for a guy that's like…" a tan hand rose as she did some quick math in her head, "Wow, he's three times my age, ha!" her perverted grinning and snickering were not helping Xiao's state of sanity at the moment, "But yea, for how old he is, pfft, sure as hell ain't stopping him… lucky bastard…"

A dark hand met face as Xiao just groaned, "Ugghh… why… I didn't need to know any of that…"

"Anyway," Reki seemed to just roll on through completely ignoring the distraught medic, "It was all kinda a spur of the moment thing, maybe, maybe not aided by alcohol, least on my part, can't get that guy drunk no matter what, and with how rough and kinky it was yea…" the woman just started laughing scratching the back of her head, "if there were condoms involved they were effectively useless… HAHAHA!"

Xiao had her head in both hands wanting to rub the images out of her brain with bleach, "And despite being an active-duty konoichi you weren't on any kind of birth-control!"

Black eyes stared flatly at the younger girl, "Are you?"

Those red eyes peaked between the medic's fingers… and conveniently looked away…

The older woman snorted as she crossed her arms, "That's what I thought…"

Xiao growled, dropping her hands, "Look, my personal life is none of your business but currently I'm not involved with anyone nor am I in a position to be out on missions making such… activities… a possibility…"

Black eyes just stared flatly, "You're a virgin aren't you?"

Red eyes closed surprisingly calm, "I'm not going to dignify that with a response…"

A broad bright grin passed the desk clerk's face, "Fair enough," the smirk came down to a cocky grin as her narrow black eyes just looked the younger woman over, "But I'm in a similar situation," she flippantly waved her hand, "I haven't been in a relationship in years, let alone wanting one, and c'mon, I'm ME!" tan hands went up and pointed at the older woman cockily, "If I want any, I get it myself, and fuck like I'm going to care about the consequences~"

"Obviously," Xiao snorted.

Reki slumped, putting her hands on both sides of her as she looked down at the girl, "Look, I've lived this long and that's a damn miracle in itself…" absently her left hand went to her stomach as something soft came over the brash woman's face, "I think the only good I've ever done is bring my kids into this world, if I'm suppose to have another one… heh," a light nostalgic smile came over her face, "and with that prick, hehe," those happy black eyes looked straight into surprised red ones, "Then sure, why not? The gods got one fucked up sense of humor…"

For a moment red eyes just stared at the woman. As long as Xiao had known the older desk clerk she was brash, hostile, and basically evil to just about anyone, treating them like dirt for her own amusement or just screwing with peoples' heads. Yorihi often told her about a woman that was battle-hardened, cold, detached and afraid of everything, who would gladly die for the sake of another. The woman sitting in front of Xiao now was something completely different. This woman had a softness to her snarky nature, a fear she hid behind her grin, but somehow earnest in her excitement. This woman accepted everything. –This must be Reki-san as a mother…- people changed, Xiao knew this first hand dealing with her Shisho, Yorihi, and anyone else the younger teen associated with. Obviously, for Reki, being a mother brought out the best in the crazy woman.

After a long second Xiao just sighed, "Well, at least I now have a better idea of what to expect," she glanced down at the folder on the floor, debating about grabbing it, "Uzumaki pregnancies typically are a bit longer and the kids have a larger chakra drain on the mothers, which would be fine for Uzumaki women but…" her voice trailed off as the young medic went over some of the pregnancies of Uzumaki descendents in her head, quickly calculating what kind of problems there could be…

A light laugh brought the young medic out of her thoughts, "Oh, this kid'll be fine," that cocky Gakushin grin spread on Reki's face, "Mei and Jun were a bit late and were a major drain on me, not that I didn't expect anything different, I got a helluva lotta chakra myself… my mother used to complain that I screwed up her chakra system before I was born, haHA!"

A dusky-pink brow rose, "Hmm, really?" that cocky grin was all the response she needed, "Well I'd still feel more comfortable with frequent check-ins, this is a late pregnancy, so despite how 'well' your previous ones were there could still be problems just from that…"

"Yea, yea…" Reki hopped off the table, left hand resting on her belt, "So I just check in with you again in a month or something?"

Xiao's eyes had the seriousness of a medical professional as she watched her patient, "I'd prefer every two weeks, but it's the later term that has me more worried, so we'll discuss more when we get there…" the older woman just grinned, not agreeing or disagreeing just ready to run. Red eyes narrowed as the older woman seemed to head towards the door, "So… are you going to tell him?"

At the question the black haired woman went still a foot from the door. Her shoulders slumped and for the longest time the older woman was perfectly still, staring at nothing in front of her, "The first time I was pregnant, with Jun, I was so scared… shocked that me, of anyone was pregnant, and more so worried about what his father would say… or ask me to do…" the woman raised her head, turning back to look at the young doctor with softer eyes then Xiao had ever seen on the desk clerk, a light smirk picking at her lips, "I found out about Mei when I was alone, and that scared me in a whole different way, heh," she ran a hand through her bangs as an honest grin spread across the woman's face, "Now though… I got a great family, people I can trust who'll never hurt me or ask me to hurt myself," her hand lowered and her eyes were just soft on the little red eyed girl, obviously including her in that list, "So to be honest, I'm not scared to tell him… cause it doesn't really matter, I've already decided this kid's mine, whether he wants it or not…"

A small smirk picked at the dark skinned young woman's lips, "Ya know, Reki-san, not everything's about claiming what's 'yours'," Xiao gave a light shrug, thinking about as certain silly man, "Sometimes it's about sharing the responsibility, building something together…"

"Heh, how old are you?" the older woman grinned, "You sound older than me with advice like that?"

Xiao just huffed, raising one hand and shooing her out, "Get out, I have other patients to see, and you have someone to congratulate on knocking you up…"

Those black eyes stared flatly, "Nice way to put it kid," at the continued shooing motion Reki just laughed, opening the door and letting herself out.

* * *

Utsurabon Xiao - 'little flute that can attack, destroy or defend the feast of lanterns' - Yorihi's rival/best friend

Gakushin Reki - Learn By being Run Over - Yorihi's 'Grandmother'

Mentions:

Tenkyuu Yorihi - cloudless rain from fire - Raikage's Daughter/Kidnapped converted Hyuuga Hinata

Uzushio - swirling tides - formerly Uzumaki Shishio

Mei and Jun - Reki's kids

Kushi - Reference - Yorihi's friend

* * *

**A/N:** there, it has seen the light of day! happy!

come on, someone have me write about someone else, Reki's very pushy and i think she's had enough spot light XD

Till next -salute-waves- Sayounara, Mina!

-Ikasury


	5. They Call Me Dakini

**A/N:** why do i write this instead of working on next chappy for WYCH? i'm in a bad mood and my wrists hurt from writing fifty-bajillion papers on ancient India and China -.- suppose this didn't help my wrists but made me feel slightly better...

Canon - approximately 3 years after the start of WYCH (4 yrs before the Academy stuff) - apparently my Academy teachers are some of my more loved OCs, i dunno people like them, i like them too as they were kinda over the top and considering i'd originally designed them from a joke idea of 'hey lets have teachers be a three stooges reference' and seeing how they turned out... well, yea, power of imagination ho~ this i just something i never really got around to telling about them and some people asked me awhile ago, and while i'd gone in minor detail before, here's the more detailed/awesome version~

i might get around to Moe's but for now, here's Ruri and Kuri :3

ENJOY!

* * *

'They Call Me Dakini'

"_Om mani padme hm… om mani padme hm… om mani padme hm…"_

Kurogami Ruri sat in a lotus position, legs crossed, back straight, fists touching knuckle to knuckle with thumbs up around her diaphragm with her head tilted slightly down as she repeated the mantra over and over again achieving blissful peace for a short while. It was an old mantra, one her mother and father had taught her along with martial arts, for they followed the old teachings of the masters of the Land of Lightning with the exception of violence. To her family and those that were shinobi that adopted the path there was no abhorrence to violence, like the standard ideology, to them it was merely part of their 'way', violence and peace went hand in hand and humans needed both to sustain themselves in this material world. There was no reason or cause to praise one and forsake the other, both existed only because of each other, the world simply went in cycles of which was dominant. At least, that's what she believed and saw in the world.

At 22 she and her partner, Kitearu Kuri, were members of Company A, Kumo's primary assault squad. They were the bulk of the military might of Kumo, the 'hammer' compared to other methods of coercion the Village Hidden in the Clouds used to gain what it wanted. She liked this position, as it did not require deception, it was the most blunt and honest of all the jobs of shinobi, they went onto the battlefield and merely wiped out anything and everything that stood in their way. It was simple, uncomplicated, and fit well within her view of the world. As meditation was her moments of peace, out on the battlefield was her moments of violence, and that was fine with her.

Right now she and her partner were on a rather blunt, if still somewhat 'covert', mission in one of the middle countries between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning. Konoha had become quite active recently and their Raikage wanted to know why… as well as make a show of obvious force. Ruri knew how this situation was going to play out, between the three great wars and the minor wars between countries there were innumerable 'skirmishes', small micro-wars that never lasted more than a month and a handful of battles. They were quick and the victor easily determined, they usually happened because someone was trying to either _start_ another war or test the defenses of a rival Major Village. This was not unfamiliar to Ruri and her partner, as being members of Company A and one of the best pairs in it, she liked to believe, they were often sent as the 'persuasion' in these skirmishes. Where the opposing village would send a contingent of twenty to fifty shinobi, Kumo only ever needed to send a handful of shinobi, 2-3 pairs at most, or a single pair such as her and her partner.

Due to their constant successes of power many in the Company had come to call her 'Dakini', a female demon that trained under the Goddess of Destruction herself, Kali. Ruri had no issue with this, even started getting more and more tattoos to make her appearance resemble such demons to scare her enemies, as well as hide her numerous scars and seals for her trophies, and unlike most she understood there were many forms to Dakini; scholars and warriors, inspiration and vengeful violence, teachers and punishers… she had no issue with this nickname.

Her partner, Kuri, had been given the offhand title of 'Daikoku-ten', a god of luck and guardian of dharma, the way, and was the Company's way of saying it was all his doing the two of them were so lucky in victory while she was merely the muscle, fierce but only violent. Again, something Ruri had little issue with, her silent partner was her luck and her protector, moving the field to her advantage while she decimated the enemy up front. Many of their battles could be called legendary from the small feats the two of them could accomplish together and there wasn't a single day she'd change of it.

But today was not a very lucky day…

While Ruri was peacefully meditating in their small camp, conserving her energy for any upcoming battles and replenishing herself from the ones they'd already fought, Kuri had gone off to scout the area and be the guard. She trusted him with this task, he never let her down. She knew that while meditating she could completely lose her sense of the world around her which was one of the reasons she rarely did it out in the field, but two weeks straight of battles with very little sleep or rest for her muscles required she replenish her energy somehow. With her trust placed in her partner she had entered the trance with the idea that in an hour she would recover what three nights of blissful sleep would have achieved so they could continue their mission.

Unfortunately with their rigorous battles Kuri had been just as worn out as she was but forcing himself for her sake. His attacks were chakra based and while he was a competent hand-to-hand fighter his physical body rarely needed the rest hers did, so he had agreed to scout the area while she recovered. He would just take another chakra pill and push on silently, like always, without complaint. Unfortunately he was on the brink of chakra poisoning and he knew taking anymore would be permanently damaging to his coils. The reality was the pair were at their physical and spiritual limits, but like any other Kumo-nin they wouldn't stop until the mission was done or they were dead, it was just how they were.

Kuri had been incapacitated first, trying to fight without wasting any of his limited reserves but the fresh Konoha ANBU had been too much for him to handle on his own. They left him for dead, strapped to a tree with chakra-inhibitors and making it all too obvious his partner was their real target, too bad she was too out of it to come and save him.

Ruri had been deep into her meditation when something hit her strong in the face, a hammer of some type sending her flying through the canvas of their tent and slamming into the tree behind her. She was lucky her physical reflexes kicked in despite her mind still trapped in the haze between the real world and the metaphysical one. Even partially unconscious, worn out and in muted pain, the woman landed on her feet in a perfect tortoise stance, feet wide and sturdy with her hands in front in relaxed positions ready to counter. One of the ANBU had moved in to distract her, the Kumo woman grabbing the smaller ANBU's extended kick and switching effortlessly into an open palm style, striking the ANBU's leg hard enough to dislocate their knee. There was a muffed groan behind the mask before they were unconsciously tossed into another charging member of the ANBU team, the muscular Kumo woman shifting between styles as she dodged thrown weapons, deflected incoming strikes with fluid-like open-palm styles and came in with powerful iron fist attacks as she kept her attackers at bay.

It was a good ten minutes of fighting on reflex before the woman's mind finally recovered from the interruption of her meditation and her conscious mind finally returned. Sadly this small snap in her fluid fighting was all it took to distract her long enough for a snake to slip under her defenses, wrap around her right leg and bite painfully hard, injecting the muscle with a severely painful poison.

"Argh," Ruri had to bite down hard as her leg gave out due to the sudden pain. It wasn't like being stabbed, it was as if every nerve in her leg just went into overload and sending only pure pain signals. She suddenly had no control of her limb and pain constantly disrupting her fluid movements, but she endured, she had to. –_Kuri…_- her partner was nowhere in sight and she couldn't sense him. He had to be out there somewhere, if he wasn't helping her then he was incapacitated, likely injured and needed her… she **_had_** to get past these bastards and find him.

The behemoth woman ignored the pain in her leg and continued fighting. She could feel the snake attempt to squeeze her leg more, probably trying to crush it, but even with her nerves on fire she maintained the tension in her leg enough to prevent the cold-blooded creature's attempts. She fell back, dodging the hammer, spun to avoid a sword and rolled, uppercutting the hammer-wielding while biting back the pain before letting herself fall out of another slash, raising her leg so the snake got cut off and _poof!_ed out of existence while she rolled away. She landed in a tiger stance… that immediately crumbled as any weight on her right leg caused it to buckle. There was a harsh grunt as she bit back the pain, modifying the stance and putting her weight on her knee, pain or not, while waiting for the next strike.

Now awake and having the second to look her small black eyes took in her opponents. Konoha ANBU, four of them, big guy with hammer, average sized one with a sword, a smaller one in the back that looked to be a woman who was trying to pop her knee back to normal, and another normalish sized guy with two kunai. She bit her lip hard enough to bleed, just a means to focus on that pain as opposed to the searing in her leg as she prepared to further the fight. Normally a group of four was nothing to her as she could dance through an entire army unscathed but this just had to be the worst time… at least that's what she told herself, as much pride as she had even she knew that occasionally the other villages did develop Shinobi that were worth a fight.

-_Where the hell had that snake come from…_- her eyes continued to scan the area as the ANBU approached. The creature had '_poof!_ed' out of existence, meaning it was a summon… meaning one of these ANBU had to be a summoner… and from the files she read Konoha only had one snake summoner…

That's when her battle senses roared and she reflexively turned around, expecting another fighter.

What she got was a mass of boa constrictors and someone's voice muffled through a mask, "_Senei Jashu!_"

Ruri growled as the things flexed around her squeezing the air out of her lungs. She flexed to counteract their might, even managed to pull some off, and with various _poof!_s some even disappeared. That's when she felt various bites; on her neck, arm, stomach and seemingly anywhere the damn things could get to, though thankfully it seemed to be a different kind of poison. Despite her resisting and fighting she could feel a numbness spreading from the bites, obviously these ones had some manner of tranquilizer instead of whatever venom the other one had. Despite the drowsiness and heaviness of her muscles she kept fighting, dragging the snake-wielder out of the shadows and head-butting them, cracking their mask and probably their skull.

With the summoner incapacitated the snakes disappeared. Ruri immediately collapsed, breathing heavily as her whole body was cold and numb except for her right leg that still felt as if every nerve was firing at once. That pain in her leg was probably the only thing keeping her conscious as she steadied herself on her other leg, one arm bracing herself on the ground as her drowsy eyes glared at the approaching ANBU.

She could hear muffled voices but didn't register what they said, just noticed as they approached, cautious, angry, weapons drawn. Her other leg gave out and now it was only her arms supporting her as everything continued to get cold and the edges of her eyes were black. The moment something 'not-cold' grabbed one arm her body acted on instinct in a burst of whatever she could muster left, twisting the man's arm around, grappling him and breaking his neck…

Unfortunately that was her last conscious act, as panting and wheezing she collapsed unconscious, everything she could muster to stave off the numbing and painful poisons gone in that defiant act of killing at least one of them. In her delirious and unconscious state she could feel one of them punch her in the face and for a moment she thought she saw stars…

* * *

_"You fucking idiot!_"

_"BACK OFF!"_

_"You could have killed her!"_

_"I intend too!"_

_"And I'll help…"_

_"Both of you stand down!"_

_"She killed Tori!"_

_"She's killed a lot of our people…"_

_"SO LETS KILL HER!"_

_"… and we've killed a lot of them!"_

A scoff and shouting slipped into the darkness surrounding Ruri's head.

_"Our mission was to capture one of them for interrogation, NOT KILL THEM!"_

_"Feh, there's always that baldy we left for dead, lets just kill her and grab him…"_

-_Baldy…_- part of her clung to that, an image of a man with thin eyes and a serious face entered her darkness. –_Kuri…_-

_"The mission was for the taijutsu master, not the ninjutsu one!"_

_"That's just stupid!"_

_"Aurgh!"_

-_Taijutsu master…? Me?_- Ruri stirred the slightest, any movement causing pain to shoot through her body. Either those morons continued to beat her while she was unconscious or that poison in her leg had spread… despite be mostly unconscious she kept her reaction purely mental… then again she felt completely detatched from her body, too drugged up and in pain to register much beyond the yelling properly.

_"Look, I'm the T&I expert here, we go for the one that we can likely get information out of…"_

_"You saw that woman right? How many of those pesky vermin did you sic on her and how long did she keep going? Hell she fucking killed Tori when she was practically numb and unconscious!"_

_"And you were the idiot that told him to grab her!"_

There was the sound of a harsh blow and something heavy landing next to Ruri. Her eyes were opened only a sliver, enough to register light and movement, and she could see that something had been thrown on the ground in front of her but beyond that she couldn't really tell.

_"I'm warning you snake bitch, mouth off again and I'll be sending back a KIA message along with yours and this cunt's corpses… then we'll just go grab that baldy and hand him over to that sadist you work for…"_

The person in front of her must have been the snake summoner, the following growl matched the voice that had used the technique to sic all those snakes on her.

_"Now where were we…"_

Ruri closed her eyes and focused on the world around her, using the ground as a means to see everything through the vibrations. She wasn't as good as her partner at this as he was the one to show her how to do it, but it was enough to give her an idea of the positions of the ANBU and herself. They were no longer in the clearing by the camp she and Kuri had made and considering there were only four of them again, including the snake summoner this time, they must have either left their comrade's body or disposed of it, likely the later.

The snake summoner was on the ground next to her, spitting out blood from the sound of it. The other three was standing not far away, the hammer wielder, the biggest, was grabbing his weapon and deciding what to do. The smaller guy and the other woman were behind him; apparently they'd fixed up her leg meaning one of them had to be some manner of medic.

_"Let me do it…"_ the other woman, and it sounded like she unsheathed some weapon, too small to be a sword as the draw was short, likely some manner of knife, meaning close range…

_"Hmp, fine… just make it painful,_" the hammer went head down on the ground and the large man was likely leaning on it as Ruri could feel the smaller woman approach.

_"With pleasure…_" she approached close, obviously not worried she might be conscious or not…

Ruri breathed softly, her mind clearing as she counted the woman's steps. Obviously they thought she was still in the throes of the poisons, unluckily for them the pain inducing one was working at full effect, and the numbing one was dampening it just enough that she could think. She could feel her arms tied behind her back, along with her legs tied together at the heels and attached to her arms; obviously these weren't the average moronic ANBU. Luckily they were letting their feelings cloud their judgment and thinking that her being 'incapacitated' made it safe to approach… she'd prove them wrong.

The woman had crouched down, pushing the downed Kumo-nin to show her throat. Whatever the woman's intentions had been… well, no one would ever know.

The downed snake summoner had registered something wrong and tried to warn the other woman, "Wait-!"

But it was too late, with a show of impeccable muscular ability, Ruri had flung her legs up in a crunch, locking her knees around the female ANBU'S head and with another twist of her abdominal muscles snapped the woman's neck.

_"YOU BITCH!"_

The pain that shot through her body from the action forced the blonde to bite on the gag around her mouth so hard as to nearly bite through it. She didn't even register the swift kick to her face as her knees were forced to let go of the limp corpse and her body was going into seizing fits.

_"Stand aside, I'm going to break every bone this demon has!"_

She came back to consciousness enough to feel that massive hammer come down on her right leg, right where that fucking snake had bitten it and where the most severe pain was. "ARGH!" she couldn't help the scream, she could feel the fracture, feel that another hit like that and her femur would snap…

"YOU MORON!" the snake summoner had leapt from the ground and tackled the large man with the hammer, preventing another strike. There was the sound of a scuffle, the smaller man that had kicked her grabbing the remaining woman while the large man got off the ground, "If that poison in her leg leaves her muscle and spreads to her heart she'll _DIE!_ Our mission will be a failure!"

Ruri could hear a strike that was hard enough to send the woman's mask flying as the large man growled, "Then good! I've lost two teammates to this woman already and kami knows how many others of our comrades she's wiped off the map," there was a scuffle as the man's voice lowered threateningly, likely grabbing the woman's uncovered face to look at him, "I'm going to kill this Kumo demon, fuck our mission, we can always capture another one…"

All throughout the exchange Ruri listened, stilling her body from the fits and measuring her pain. They were going to kill her no matter what… as a member of Kumo she had her pride, if she was going to die here, bound and pumped full of poison, then she was going to deny her captors the only thing they had left to do to her. –_I'm sorry Kuri…_- with the thought of her probably dead partner she mustered the strength to sit up, shake and stretch her body enough to snap the bindings that tied her arms and legs together and with a twist started bashing her elbow as hard as she could on her right leg.

"What the fu-CAPTAIN!" the smaller man shouted, letting go of the snake summoner and pointing.

Biting the gag as hard as she could and seething Ruri gave another hit before leaning back and screaming to the heavens. Her femur had snapped, ripping through her thigh and a jutting jagged bone shown glistening in the night air as blood began to quickly pool from the wound.

"YOU FUCKING BITCH!" that hammer hit her in the head again, dazing her enough to momentarily forget the pain as tears fell from her tattooed eyes without her consent.

-_I'm so sorry Kuri… I'm so sorry…_- she was choking on blood and tears as the world around her was fuzing out and turning cold.

"**_OOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUURAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!"_**

With the edges of consciousness fading and the world growing dark and hazy Ruri saw a sudden blinding bright light, a massively beautiful beast of earth with glowing eyes stood over her as the ground shook and the distant sounds of battle began. Her small black hazy eyes just stared… -_Kuri…_- she knew he'd show up… he always did… she smiled and the world became black and cold.

* * *

The next moment she woke was because of a pulsing pain in her fingers. There was a steady beat of the ground moving and wind stinging her wounds. She couldn't feel her right leg as it hung limply, the other held in someone's grip as their other hand braced her non-responsive arms around their neck.

She knew that thick neck, that green color, that smell of dirt and chestnuts.

Dizzily she tried raising her head, she couldn't see straight and everything felt so cold. She should be dead, if not back there then she would be soon, she'd seen her leg, broke it herself to deny those Konoha bastards the satisfaction of killing her and the fact she couldn't feel it meant she'd likely lost all the blood in it. At least it wasn't hurting anymore, either the poison being drained out with her blood or it was so bad her brain stopped registering.

"Kuri…" her voice was so soft and so low she wasn't even sure he'd heard her. There was something slick on the side of his face, it looked red, like blood.

He was injured, and still carrying her.

"Leave me," was the first thing she said, meaning it honestly, she was dead anyway, he could make it back, live on without her. She tried to move, to make him release her, but her body was so drained, either from the blood loss or injuries, that she couldn't move. Lifting her head to try and look at his face was taking everything she had left.

"Sleep," was his one word response, completely ignoring her words like nothing was wrong. That was so like him.

Against her will and desire to save her partner, Ruri's body betrayed her and set her head on his bloody collar. It was cold and warm and wet and she nuzzled into the familiar scent, collapsing into the familiarity.

This was safe, this was home, she could collapse here, he'd watch over her, he always did.

* * *

The next instance of consciousness was roused by the sound of beeping monitors. She felt heavy and drugged, her small black eyes opening slightly to catch only white. For a moment she thought her vision was going bad and with an annoying amount of effort focused enough to realize that was just the ceiling being monotonous and white. Moving her eyes she saw little else; white walls, white curtains that were closed, and in between were white bands holding up a white cast.

She blinked, something about that registering that it should have been important.

But before her mind could put the pieces together something not-white moved into the side of her vision and suddenly there was a large man with thin eyes and a chubby face leaning on the side of her bed looking directly at her. There was something strange about his eyes, something that didn't look right… then something white caught her attention and her eyes moved up, just above his right eye was a huge bandage that covered nearly half his head. Without realizing it she had reached out to try and touch the white thing that shouldn't have been there, her dark tan and tattooed arm unsteady and shaking as it took far too much effort to move the drugged appendage to its intended destination.

Her partner, ever the one to know what she wanted without a word grabbed her unsteady hand, his was very warm and rough, and pulled it to the bandage covering half his head. After a moment of her arm getting used to the feel of holding itself in that position, the man's large warm hand lowered, letting her examine the bandage herself as his lowered to her wrist, just being there in case she needed it.

"Kuri…?" her voice was low, harsh from her throat being dry, as she stared at him.

He nodded, his brows knitting in the center slightly as a small frown tugged on his lips.

The gears in Ruri's brain started running and she started to remember some of what happened, her hand on his bandage stilling, "The mission… what hap…" it took far too much effort to speak as she winced in pain trying to swallow, gripping her hand.

In response Kuri raised both of his, taking her extended hand in his own and brought it down to her stomach, holding it between his as he looked at her, trying to keep a straight face, "Abandoned," he rubbed her rough and scarred hand as he could feel her twitch, not understanding his word. The chubby man shook his head, momentarily reaching behind him to pull the nearby chair closer as he sat by her bedside, holding her hand, "Another team took it up, we don't have to worry about it anymore…"

Her blonde brows furrowed, scrunching up her tattoos, "Th-those ANBU…"

"Taken care of," his words were dark as his eyes became stern, "Only one of them got away, to warn them…"

Ruri squinted at her partner more, she'd never heard him say anything that threatening before, it didn't make sense. She turned away from him, not bothering to remove her hand from his as she looked down the bed. Her body was stiff, there were seal wraps over what visible parts she could see… and her right leg was in a full cast. Her small black eyes just stared at the white mass, knowing what it meant…

"The doctors say you will recover…" he was always so perceptive.

She stared flatly at the mockery in front of her; "No, I won't…" her voice was flat and devoid of life. She knew what a break like that meant, knew what it meant for her career, for her life… it was over. If she ever learned to walk again that would be a miracle but she would never, **_never_** be able to fight like she had, like she **_needed_** to ever again. She was broken beyond repair, useless, worthless…

Kuri gripped his partner's hand tighter, knowing exactly what she was thinking… and having no idea how to fix it.

* * *

When Kuri had been incapacitated and left for dead by the Konoha ANBU his thoughts had only been of his partner. She needed him, not that she was incapable of defending herself, he knew better than anyone just what that woman was capable of, no she needed him in a different way, to support her, to keep her going, to be her reason she was fighting. She trusted him so wholeheartedly and so openly he couldn't bare the idea of letting her down. He knew how she thought and what she would do in a situation if she thought he was dead. She would go down fighting; she was after all a cousin of the current Raikage, everyone from that bloodline, even if they were only related before the first Raikage, had this extreme drive and extreme way of thinking. The world for them was blunt and black and white, if her partner was dead, she would do everything in her power to kill those that did it and likely die in the process. This was simply the way of the world for her.

So he **_had_** to stay alive, **_had_** to get out of these restraints and find her.

The ANBU had surprised him, traveling silently through the trees only to attack him in force and one of them managed to poison him with a snake and they'd left him tied up to a tree just in case. They thought he was dead or going to be relatively soon. He had not been their target obviously, meaning they wanted his partner.

The drive to get back to her, to warn her and show he was there was the only reason he was still alive. He had put himself into a deep meditation, focusing on his chakra and slowing his heart rate to nearly nonexistent so he could prevent the poison from spreading, pinpoint it and expel it. It was a rather painful process that took more time then he cared to admit but once it had been force out of his system he was able to get his heart rate back to normal, breathe`` and return to the world of the living. With a heavy breath he'd then went about disabling the seals and restraints, Konoha were such amateurs to think these basic seals would work, let alone restrict, someone like him.

After getting out of that situation he'd collapsed on the ground, breathing hard and pushing any fatigue or doubts out of his mind and body. He had a mission; save his partner and nothing else mattered. With his hands on the ground he managed to pinpoint the ANBU's location and after struggling to his feet took off, gathering as much chakra as he could while he ran wanting to be as prepared as he could be.

He'd managed to get within visual range of them when Ruri had snapped the female ANBU's neck. Part of him smirking, knowing that woman was deadly with any part of her body no matter her position. The fact she took a foot to the face didn't make him happy, she was sluggish and not moving properly. She must have been poisoned like he had been. He had to suffer watching her take a beating as he drew closer, not wanting them to notice him just yet, but he trusted her, she could take it, she was strong.

The second the other female ANBU, being held back by her own comrades, made mention of the poison that could kill his partner his blood ran cold. He knew what was going to happen before his partner snapped the rope holding her bindings together. His heart sunk as he saw her thrash to break her leg, bent on stealing the only satisfaction the Konoha ANBU had left…

He had been too late… he had failed her… she didn't know… she was going to…

Kuri's mind went blank.

"**_OOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUURAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!"_**

The chakra he had been gathering released and he freely manipulated the earth around him as he charged the ANBU, bent on killing them as quickly as possible, but most importantly get Ruri out of there. She was a brash idiot, a damn fool, but she was his brash damn idiotic fool! He managed to pierce the smaller male ANBU with a earth spike before they seemed to even notice. The woman, having been let go ran off into the forest, obviously not sticking around for what was to come. The last one charged at him, hammer raised and summoning fire with it as he struck out at the earth user. In his battle induced haze Kuri didn't even care what the man did, spikes of earth jutting out of the ground at seemingly random before the man bashed them with his hammer.

He was so focused on the earth spikes he didn't even notice Kuri come up on his side, beat rods extended as he used his chakra to add an excessive amount of weight to them as he brought them down and smashed the man's head. In a last ditch effort the man's useless body lashed out, the burning hammer coming up and striking Kuri in the head, cutting him deep and likely cracking his skull. Both men collapsed several feet from each other.

It took a moment but Kuri rose, right eye closed from the pain above it and the blood freely flowing from the head wound and watched as the man's flailing body tried to stand on instinct, not caring about the fact he'd bashed a good portion of his brain in. Angry and feeling a little more then vindictive, Kuri focused some chakra into his hand and slammed it on the ground, an array of spikes jutting out and making short work of what was left of the ANBU's body.

He collapsed on his knees, breathing hard as the blood was cutting off a good portion of his vision as he tried to get his bearings. He need to get out of here, every instinct in the ninjutsu wielder screaming to run. –_Ruri_- he needed to find her, it was the only thing keeping him in this place longer then necessary. Upon spotting her body he quickly stumbled over to her, looking her over and noticing the blood pooling around her body, the ugly bone sticking out of her leg and the sightless way her eyes were staring up at the sky.

He collapsed on his knees above her, clinching his teeth and breathing in short breaths, "Ruri," it was little more then a barked whisper as his shaky hands made it to the woman's face, finger tips gliding over her tattoos praying she wasn't dead. He breathed in choked tight breaths as he could still feel some warmth in her cheeks, but it wasn't until his thumbs made it to her lips that he registered she was still breathing.

"Hold on," that one confirmation that there was life in her was enough to snap him into motion. With a flick of his wrist an earth spike rose out of the ground and cut the bindings around her ankles and wrists. Quickly he grabbed her arms and slung them around his shoulder, holding her wrists and grabbing her uninjured leg and taking off in the direction of Kumo. He didn't care if he wasn't delicate, Ruri wasn't a delicate woman and she would understand his need for speed over comfort.

All he could think about was she was alive, he needed her to stay that way, needed her to keep breathing.

He'd managed to travel for an entire day before she stirred momentarily and his heart clinched when the first thing she said was that he leave her. His mind was blank and he said the first thing that came to mind, "Sleep." Soon enough she did, collapsing and not waking since. He pushed himself faster.

By the second day they'd made it past the boarder and to a base where Ruri was given emergency medical attention, really only enough to ensure she would survive being shipped back to Kumo. Kuri had refused treatment, staying by his partner's side, even when they put her through minor surgery to make her mobile, and punching his superior's face when the man even suggested he leave his partner to the medics back in Kumo and continue his mission.

No one had ever seen Kitearu Kuri furious or disobey a direct order. The fact he displayed both in less than an hour of getting to the base and never left his partner's side was enough reason for everyone there to give him a wide berth. The captain in charge of this section of Company A was unconscious for three days after Kuri socked him, which was graciously long enough for the medical team to make Ruri suitable for travel and ship the two partners back to Kumo for actual treatment.

The Commander of Company V had been required to keep Ruri alive and the eel-like woman was far more intimidating then the lower Company A jounin. Kuri had been forced to sit outside in the waiting area while the surgery took place and it wasn't until hours later when his partner had been moved out of surgery into recovery and he'd bullied his way to sit by her bed that he'd finally had some manner of medical attention.

He was suffering from **_severe_** chakra depletion, the fact he was still standing was due to sheer willpower alone. The red-eyed nurse had to call in three other nurses just to knock the man out so they could fully assess his injuries and allow his body to recover the necessary chakra to keep on living. If the man pushed himself any more he'd either burn out his coils or kill himself, and as much as Kumo medics were willing to 're'-injure their patients to get them to sit still they **_did not_** let anyone just die for no damn reason. In a fit of benevolence, or insanity, the Commander of Company V had ordered the two be placed in the same recovery room. This was enough of a shock to cause several heart attacks among the hospital staff but the order had been heeded.

Kuri had awoken three days later in a bed next to Ruri's. Immediately he had jumped out of it to stand next to her bedside and look her over. She was pale and clammy, her hair limp and matted in places and she looked so weak attached to machines with seal-wraps everywhere and that cast on her leg. He had collapsed to his knees, hand tightly holding hers and cried quietly into the sheets of her bed.

Despite all that she looked beautiful to him simply because she was alive.

It wouldn't be until a week later that the blonde brawler finally opened her eyes. Kuri had stayed by her side as much as physically possible, checking on her condition and making sure it didn't worsen while being yelled at by hospital staff to take care of himself as well. The nurses had made a point of saying how pissed his partner would be if she woke up and he looked like a skeleton, it had worked, and the chubby man had made it a habit to bring food and eat it while waiting for her to wake up.

Of course his moment of joy at seeing awake and alive was ruined by the crumbling reality of what was in front of them. Her leg. An injury like that was enough to put most shinobi out of commission, it was even worse for Ruri because she was a Taijutsu type, she relied on her entire body working as a fine tuned machine of war, if one piece was broken beyond repair there was little that could be done to alleviate this problem. If she had been a ninjutsu type like him or heaven-forbid a genjutsu type this type of injury wouldn't be a problem, hell they probably could have just amputated the leg and sent her to Company P and gotten a prosthetic. But no, she was Ruri, called 'Dakini' by their comrades for the way she danced on the battlefield slaughtering their enemies with their own weapons and her exceptional taijutsu skills.

Now she couldn't dance, couldn't fight, couldn't move with the fluid efficiency she had spent years honing. He had overheard the doctors that checked on her, how they said they had to remove some of her muscle tissue because it had begun to necrotize from the poison injected or the bloodloss, how due to this imbalance if she fought at her normal level she'd likely rebreak her leg or rip all the remaining muscles in it, likely both. There was a chance she could learn to compensate, learn to fight in a way that was 'less' and didn't put as much stress on the leg, but there was no way she'd be back to being 'Dakini'. Her career as a frontline shinobi was effectively over.

And that was the cold reality facing them as he watched her small black eyes take in the cast on her leg not long after she had woken up. He could see it, that spark of joy and life that was normally in those frightening eyes was gone, snuffed out by the reality staring right in front of her. No one had to tell her, she was a physical master, she knew what this meant.

He held her hand, knowing her will to live had just gone…

* * *

A large hand slammed down on the desk with enough force to shake the few papers on it, a piece of paper underneath it.

"I quit." Was the rough low voice of the man that had slammed the piece of paper down on the desk.

Terribly familiar small black eyes stared at the hand slammed on his desk to the thin dark eyes of the chubby man's face, "And if I refuse…"

The man's dark brows lowered, scrunching up the bandage on his head, "Then I'll become a nuke-nin."

It wasn't an idle threat and the Raikage could see that. The man in front of him had stormed into his office and slammed the resignation forms down before he could so much as get a word in. if he remembered correctly from various reports from the skirmish near the border, this was the jounin from Company A that, along with his partner, spent two weeks in enemy territory successfully beating back Konoha strike teams until they'd had an incident, his partner becoming fatally injured, and while managing to eliminate the remaining enemy, ANBU no less, had been forced to retreat for medical reasons. In the Raikage's mind the man in front of him was damn lucky, not only able to fend off the ANBU that had attempted to capture his partner but get her back to Kumo, alive. Few partnerships in such a position are so fortunate…

Now the man he was seriously considering giving a medal of valor was trying to resign, that wasn't good.

A tiny blonde brow rose on the Raikage's forehead as his beady black eyes went from the paper to the man's serious face, "Tell me why you are quitting," his eyes narrowed, "Be truthful and I may consider it."

The thin frown spread on the chubby man's face but he sat down in the chair opposite the Raikage, "With my partner injured as she is, it is likely my superiors would want to reassign me to someone else and send me back out," against his will Kuri's hands tightened into fists, only the Raikage noticed, "They won't give her time to recover, and refuse to leave her."

The Raikage leaned back in his chair, idly rubbing his goatee, "Will she recover?" the way the man's fists tightened was all the answer he needed. His tiny black eyes glanced at the resignation paper again, "So you think the answer is to quit."

"I will not leave her, Raikage-sama." The man was forceful, deliberate, and honest. That was all the Raikage needed to know to understand this man would do whatever he thought was necessary.

Still rubbing his goatee, the Raikage went about thinking aloud, "So your only issue is that the two of you not be separated?" the chubby man across from him gave a curt nod, "Hmm," shifting his beady black eyes to a pile of papers on his desk, the blonde Oni idly grabbed a folder from the stack and looked it over quickly, "If I recall your record and hers is quite impeccable, Kitearu Kuri and Kurogami Ruri, correct?"

"Yes," the man tensed at his and his partner's name, wondering what the leader of their village was trying to get at.

The Raikage skimmed a few more lines of the folder he had open, "If I'm not mistaken your specialty is Ninjutsu while hers is Taijutsu correct?"

"Yes?" his voice lowered slightly, cautious of what the man was getting at.

The large man behind the desk snapped the folder closed, setting it down and staring at the man in front of him, "Will she be able to teach other?"

Dark brow furrowed as Kuri stared at the man confused, "I'm sorry?"

"Your partner," he waved his hand nonchalant, "when she recovers, will she be able to train others, say genin in various martial forms?"

The bald man's thin eyes remained narrowed, still not getting what his leader was getting at, "The only stipulation I was warned about is that she will be unable to fight to her full potential as it risks repeating her injury."

"So she will be more then capable of fighting at, say, half her peak ability?" the man made a flippant gesture with his hand making Kuri wonder if he had any idea about his partner's full ability.

-_Of course he does, they're cousins…_- he had to shake his head with a lower grunt, trying to push down the disgruntled anger he felt at this odd line of questioning, "As far as I know yes," his thin eyes opened sharply to look at the man, "And even if she can't, nothing will stop her from trying…"

A sinister smirk passed the large Oni's face as he tented his hands in front of him, "Wonderful," he lowered his hands enough to push the folder towards the jounin, "Fill these out and report to the Acadamy in two months," his grin spread as he watched the surprised look pass the man's face, "You have that long to get her through recovery before the Masters start looking at candidates for successors," the Raikage leaned to one side, smug grin on his face, "You both will have to be regular teachers for a while, and despite it being quite a pay cut from frontline fighters, you'll be able to continue working together…"

Tenderly Kuri reached out and took the folder, opening it and seeing the forms inside for transfer to the Academy as jounin instructors. His eyes blankly scanned the paperwork before turning to the man behind the desk, "Why?"

Of all the questions he was expecting that wasn't exactly one of them. A small blonde brow quirked on the Raikage's face as he lowered his hands in front of him and looked over the jounin quite sincerely, "You are a good soldier," the bald man's dark brows lowered confused, "Both of you," the Raikage's voice was low and serious as he looked the chubby man in the eye, "My cousin and I may not be the closest but we've fought several times, if it weren't for her I doubt I'd be sitting in this chair," he idly pointed at his desk, "So I owe her this much, but it is also from that experience I know she's a good teacher, she may not know it, but she is," he pointed at the man across from him, "And while I've never heard a word about you from her that just tells me you're a man that doesn't cause her any trouble, meaning you are someone she trusts, and you actions in saving her life is enough to tell me you are exactly the type of person I want teaching the next generation of our shinobi."

"But, sir-" Kuri moved to protest, knowing he wasn't someone that should be teaching shinobi, he failed, let his emotions and attachment prevent him from continuing his mission. Hell, he punched his superior, its surprising he wasn't court marshaled already.

That smug grin picked at the large Oni's face again, "Those old farts teaching at the Academy now were assigned by my father," his voice lowered as a serious look came over his face, "It's about time someone **_I_** feel is worthy and with the right attitude teaches these kids, understand."

The large man's hand tightened on the folder, closing it as he nodded, "Yes, sir."

"Good," the Oni waved his hand, "Now get out of my face, I expect good results from you two."

Kuri immediately stood and nodded, saluting the village leader before heading to the door. He was a foot from it, hand extended on the handle, before he turned enough to look at the hulking man sitting behind the desk, "Who will be the third?"

A small blonde brow piqued, "Leave that to me, you worry about my cousin, understand."

With another firm nod Kuri decided to let it go, whoever the third, the Genjutsu Master-to-be was he'd have to trust in the Raikage's judgment… and pray he and his partner were chosen.

* * *

Barely a week from waking up and Kuri had come into her hospital room, threw down a folder in her lap and said quite succinctly, "Sign it."

Ruri had only blinked, staring from him to the folder and back several times before pushing the rolly tray aside and picking up the folder. She knew better then to question her partner, he was rather stubborn and probably the only person in the world that could out-stubborn her on any issue, so she'd become used to simply doing what he said, it saved the both of them a lot of time. Part of her was hoping these were discharge forms, the higher ups and medical staff finally deciding to stop beating around the bush and finally admitting she was unfit for service. It hurt to think about, but it'd be better to get the disappointment over and done with instead of dragging it out.

So when she opened the folder and saw transfer papers, to the Academy no less, with half of them already filled out by her partner she couldn't help but blink and slowly turn to look at him, surprise and confusion on her face, "Kuri…?"

Her voice was so small, so broken and so surprised, seeking for a moment something he knew she hadn't dared to try, hope. He had to force his face to not move, to not crack, to not break, as he looked at her firmly, hands behind his back as he said in as even a voice as he could, "Sign it."

For a moment that spark was back in her eyes, not fully, just a small flicker, but it was enough to lift the weight of guilt from the man's heart for just a second.

Without another word she had taken the pen attached to the folder and signed the sheets where necessary, trusting her partner to bother with the details, before closing the folder and holding it out to him. She was looking at him, unsure and questioning but he knew she trusted him.

He took the folder, conveying in his eyes what no words could say. She trusted him, he would make sure she never lost that. After the quick exchange he left, intent to turn in the forms as quickly as possible and see how quickly he could get her discharged.

Ruri just continued staring at the door after her partner had left. She had no idea what he was thinking –_The Academy? Why?_- the only reason anyone transferred to the Academy was to get out of being genin instructors. Technically she and he hadn't done their required 'teaching' stint yet, so she supposed that's what he was doing? Applying for that to extend their time together just a while longer?

The healing woman deflated, falling back on her stack of pillows and staring up at the boring ceiling for another day of useless nothing. When he'd come in she had been grateful for the momentary distraction, but he'd left so quickly that it hadn't really done anything to help her mood at being stuck in this place. Idly she glanced at her leg still in the cast, even with seals and salves it was going to take awhile to fully heal, and then it would take even longer to get used to being unable to really push her leg. It was going to be a long and aggravating road she knew, especially when at the end of it she knew her entire world was just going to be taken away anyway.

She was a frontline fighter, not some pencil pusher or as Kuri seemed to think, a teacher. The only thing she was good at was hand-to-hand and weapon combat, how could she teach a bunch of kids if she couldn't **_do_** either of those? She just sighed, putting her hand to her face, "Kuri, what are you thinking…"

It was going to be a long couple of months.

* * *

Ruri and Kuri had shown up to their first day as Academy instructors with her having a crutch and him with a broken arm. They'd had a fight the night before ending with her inadvertently breaking his arm and having to take him to the hospital while she limped around on a crutch since even two months later it was difficult enough applying significant pressure to her right leg.

The other Master-wannabes had just looked at the two and wrote them off like they had failed already.

By the end of the day Ruri had scared the hell out of her students, whipping them in line quickly by showing them just what a cripple could do, beating into their heads, literally 'don't underestimate your enemy' as several of the students went home with sore joints as the masterful Taijutsu expert had dislocated several of the more unruly kids' joints, using it as a prime example to teach the second year students proper means for disabling their opponents.

Kuri's ninjutsu classes had been little different, several of the students not taking the new instructor seriously thinking he couldn't do anything Ninjutsu-wise due to his arm being broken. The class got to learn all about one-handed seals and the fact that one should never underestimate a creative Ninjutsu expert.

Within a week the other upcoming instructors had been floored, it was as if those two, as dysfunctional and dangerous as they were, were **_made_** to teach these kids both the harshness of the reality they were getting into and how to survive it. The students were actually interested in their classes, wondering what next the duo would pull to teach them all a worthwhile lesson.

Ruri spent her breaks complaining to Kuri about the inanities of the students, different ways she'd figure to use to get them out of certain ways of thinking and other mishaps along the way. Kuri only nodded along, inwardly smiling. His partner may not have noticed, and probably never would, but after that first month, even with the crutch still, the light in her eyes she gained from fighting had returned. He knew her injury would always be a hindrance and with time she'd eventually be able to walk again without a crutch and probably even fight, but despite her never being able to return to her glory as the 'Dakini' on the frontlines she was just as powerful in a classroom. The name truly did suit her, a fierce demon on the battlefield and a vigilant instructor.

It was no wonder that after the six month minimum trial period they were picked as the next Taijutsu and Ninjutsu Masters. Ruri had been thoroughly shocked, having not realized they were even in the running. Kuri had simply smiled, accepting the titles for both of them.

Now they just had to wait and see who the Genjutsu Master was going to be…

* * *

Dakini- in Tantric Bhuddism 'She who moves through space' a female spirit that is a form of inspiration with various levels including a physical one often as a Yogini (female Yogi/tantric practitioner/wiseman), in Hinduism a female demon in train under Kali that eats human flesh, considered malevolent and vengeful female spirits (male version: Daka) in Japanese Bhuddism a female spirit associated with Kitsune as well as a goddess named Dakiniten, who is associated with Inari and Daikoku-Ten

Daikoku-Ten- One of the 7 lucky gods in Shinto (Japanese animism) also a variation of Mahakala; a Hindu aspect of the Destroyer(Shiva) and all in forms of Bhuddism a dharma protector and guardian

OC List:

Kurogami Ruri - Black god, Lapis Lazuli - Taijutsu/Kenjutsu Master

Kitearu Kuri - Drill Sergeant, Old Chestnut - Ninjutsu Master

Ruri, Kuri - phonetic screwing referencing 'Larry' and 'Curly' from the three stooges

* * *

**A/N:** i got a surprising amount of questions like 'how would Ruri stand in a fight against the Raikage' well... here's the answer, sorta... prior to this they could potentially go toe-to-toe, by her introduction it would be impossible for her to fight at that level without injuring herself. Yes, i know, its kinda a great surprise to realize the big scary woman with the tattoos is technically the weakest of the Triad all due to an injury that now matter how well it heals can just as easily rebreak...

Personally, Ruri is kinda my favorite of the three, thus i suppose she has to get the short straw, sorry... but i liked the idea of this story, she is the kindest and most sincere of the teachers, even if she doesn't look like it at first, when she warns the kids about injury she's speaking from experience, its part of why she cares so much, and yes, she gets herself back up to an amazing fighting form within four years and i'm proud of her, just like Kuri is... but this is a glimpse at the complex life of Shinobi, she'd only seen herself as valuable as a frontline fighter, she had a lineage to live up to, but thankfully she had someone like Kuri around to help her through probably her lowest point in her life...

i love these two... now as for Moe... well... -whistles innocently- the little nutjob... she's like a mini-me Reki... insane and very demanding... we'll see how long it takes, her transition into being a teacher wasn't nearly as complicated as this...

oh well, thank you, thank you, thank you for those that see this, and absolute love to my Reviewers, especially you Ravy :3 so hope you guys enjoy this as a bit of a tide over while i wrestle with what the hell i exactly want with the next chappy~

Till next -salute-waves- Sayounara, Mina!

-Ikasury


End file.
